Dare to Dream Part II: Picking up the Pieces
by Tinuviel Undomiel
Summary: Co author Nerwen Aldarion: After Kyle's second departure Jan is determined to move on but enemies in the form of Castin Mohc and Jerec's apprentice force them together again. But what secret is she hiding? Will she ever learn to forgive Kyle?
1. Prologue: Coming Home

Disclaimer: We don't own Star Wars, wish we did because then we'd be rich.

A/N: Tinuviel Undomiel: Hello everybody. True to our word we brought this one together real quick. We left Part 1 off on a cliffhanger not just with the bad guys, but with Jan and Kyle. Let's just say you'll see that actions had consequences.

A/N: Nerwen Aldarion: Hahaha, shanesnest your review made every little plot twist that you put me through during the Rise and Fall worth it. If your hard drive didn't crash after my marathon of reveiws today I expect the next part of Kyle Katarn's journey to be up soon. You said Thursday and it's Thursday. On another note, Kyle really left Jan in the lurch didn't he? Well she isn't taking it sitting down this time, but wait a minute...is there another man in her life? Could she possibly love anyone else other than Kyle? Better read muhahahaha

**shanesnest:** Our dear fanfiction friend, you are really into this story. We're so glad. Your reactions are absolutely priceless. I'm looking forward to what you'll be saying next.

**Lord of Anonymous:** Please, please, please, write your KOTOR fic soon! We're so looking forward to reading it. Do enjoy this story as much as we know we'll enjoy yours.

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Dare to Dream Part II: Picking up the Pieces

Prologue: Coming Home

Commodore Saks had been on the run for many years now. The destruction of the Empire had left him with only a few options. He could have surrendered which meant facing a trial and imprisonment, or he could be a fugitive.

Why did the rebels have to be so touchy when it came to civilians? The planet he had occupied had been filled with disgruntled citizens. How else to keep them from rioting then forcing them to obey with an iron hand?

So now he was an outlaw just trying to survive. Sometimes he cheated, a bunch of times he stole and twice he had murdered. Life sure hadn't come out the way he'd planned with no more commendations coming from CO's or from the Emperor himself.

Saks was hiding out in the alley behind a dilapidated home. Gang members addicted to drugs hung out inside. Sure it had a roof over his head but he had been an Imperial Commodore. No man of that caliber deigned to live among squalor like that.

He had managed to make a fire in an old metal crate. The soft crackling of the orange and yellow flames helped to soothe his chapped hands. Galiox was cold in the winter months as the planet circled too far away from the sun to get enough warm rays. Perhaps he would sneak aboard a passing freighter to go to someplace warmer. Tatooine ought to be nice and toasty at this time of year.

Food would be good right now. It was getting close to when families would be settling in for their dinner. Now should he walk in with his blaster out to force them to hand over their meal, or should he simply sneak in after they were done and find what was left of it in their kitchen? Well robbing them at gun point guaranteed a hot dinner which seemed like a good idea at the moment.

Saks left his alley and walked down the suburban streets. There were nice, chipper little house with pretty yards, the perfect place for parents to let their annoying children run out and play. He briefly considered setting fire to the area to burn out the rebel families, but now was not the time. He needed food.

He had his blaster ready and armed when a female voice called out, "Why hello there, Commodore Saks."

He turned around and saw the woman behind him, a familiar looking woman but he couldn't place her. She was pretty with brown hair pulled back from her face. He couldn't see what color her eyes were but they were shaped nicely on her comely face. She had a good figure, but he didn't get a good look at that on account that she had her blaster fixed on him.

"So what were you thinking about doing?" she inquired, "Were you thinking about robbing this family off all there money and food? Well your pilfering days are over. But don't worry; we've got a nice cell picked out for you with three cold, greasy meals a day."

Saks laughed at the woman. "You think you can intimidate me? You're one pathetic woman. I can easily handle you."

"You think so?" she questioned, "Don't you recognize me, Saks? Let me refresh your memory, that crook in your nose was a nice punch by me if I do say so myself."

Saks saw red as the memory of the day his handsome face was ruined. "Jan Ors!" he growled out her name.

Ors flashed him a brilliant smile. "In the flesh."

"You crazy bitch! I swore I would kill you one day."

"Looks like you won't be getting the chance," she replied.

"You may have a blaster on me, but that won't stop me," Saks said, "You're all alone."

"Who said I was alone?"

Someone tapped his shoulder from behind and Saks turned around to find the largest man he had ever seen. The giant had long black hair and a wooly beard. A hideous scar ran perpendicular across his face. However, this all came from one glimpse because the next thing Saks saw was an enormous fist slamming into his face. Then all he saw was black.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Jan loved being in the pilot seat of her ship, of any ship actually. It wasn't so much the sense of power but simply the love of being in space. She liked the look of the white stars against the inky black. The feel of the ship in light-speed, the deep push of it against the endless area with no gravity, was amazing.

Angel broke the peace that had been filling the cockpit but it wasn't an unwelcome disturbance. "How's our prisoner?" she asked.

"Still out cold. Do you reckon I hit him too hard?"

Jan smiled. "Saks deserved a harder blow than what you gave him."

"I s'pose seeing as how he was gonna torture you on his ship if you hadn't escaped."

"That was a tough one to get out of," she admitted.

"Was that before or after you met—?"

"We should be in Coruscant within the hour," Jan cut him off before Angel could finish.

"That was fast, are you in a hurry?"

Jan smiled back at him. "I'm always in a hurry now with someone at home waiting for me."

"Guess that's a mighty fine reason if I ever heard one," Angel replied, matching her smile.

"I'm inclined to agree."

True to her word, the _Raven's Claw_ arrived in Coruscant in less than hour. It was night but the giant city was still wide awake. Lights were on in every building and speeders buzzed over the streets in a great hurry. Everyone had somewhere to go, even Jan who was itching to get there.

Once she landed the ship she hopped out of her chair. "I reckon you're ready to get home now that we're here," Angel said when he noted her anxious manner.

"I'll help you take Saks to the prison level first."

"Nah, you don't have to go and do that," Angel said, "He's still sleepin' so I'll have to carry him. You go on ahead."

Jan walked up and kissed Angel's cheek. "Thanks Angel, now if you don't mind, I've got a man at home waiting to be kissed."

"See you tomorrow for the report to Mon Mothma."

Jan waved goodbye to her dear friend before leaving the ship. She hurried through the hangar bay without stopping to chat with any acquaintances. She had the determined look in her eyes, the same look she had while on missions, but a smile was on her face.

She had changed apartments in the past year and a half, needing the extra room with a special person now in her life. Oh how she hated to be apart from him!

Jan used her key-card to unlock her apartment. A nice looking older woman was inside watching the tele-net, "Oh Miss Ors, you're home."

"Mindy," Jan said her name with a sigh, "How many times have I asked you to call me Jan?"

"I'm afraid I've lost count." Mindy smiled and scooped up her bag she had left packed on the floor. "He's sleeping now. Do tell me when you'll need me again."

"Of course," Jan replied, "Thank you for taking care of him while I was gone."

"It's always a pleasure," Mindy replied before leaving the apartment.

Jan dropped her bag in the living room, too anxious to bring it to her bedroom which was right next door to her destination. Inside the spare room the walls were painted a pale blue but now the seemed even brighter with the lights from the street trickling through the curtains. No music was playing so Jan assumed that Mindy hadn't had any trouble tonight.

She crept inside and stopped to curl her fingers around the top rung and looked down at the angel inside.

He was a perfect, the most beautiful thing in this galaxy. He had soft, fine brown hair that almost covered his head. He wore a blue pajama suit with spaceships on it, an outfit Jan had chosen for him. He had kicked off the covers and was sucking his thumb in his sleep.

Jan leaned down and kissed the top of his head. "Sleep well Morgan, my beautiful baby boy."

* * *

A/N: What can we say to top that last line? Review and then move on to the next chap to learn more.


	2. Chapter 1: Precious Moments

Disclaimer: We don't own diddily squat.

A/N Tinuviel Undomiel: I have a feeling that shanesnest is screaming at us for the little cliffhanger in the prologue. Ah well, maybe this chapter will cheer him up.

A/N Nerwen Aldarion: Wow I bet a lot of your are wondering what happened to Jan? How did she get to be so...female? HAHAHA it's cute really, I'm sure you'll like it but watch out she's going to protect her cub like a Mother Bear, so be on the watch.

NOTE: Some of you might notice a little shout out to The Rise and FAll of Kyle Katarn by shanesnest when I mention that Jan was tortured by General Mohc. As far as I know that did NOT happen in the game but shanesnest made it up for his gloriously wonderful fic. So that little tidbit goes to him, I laugh and call this an AU/companion to that fic because of it but really I just always thought that it was a good plot point and I really think that the creators of the game missed out on a golden opportunity there. Kudos to shanesnest for dreaming it up, it really was amazing.

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Chapter 1: Precious Moments

A cry woke Jan up in the morning, making her bolt up from her bed. She looked over at the clock and saw that it was 0917. _Damn! I overslept!_ With her night clothes still on, she rushed into the nursery and saw her son lying in his crib, begging for his morning bottle.

"Its okay, Morgan," she cooed to the baby as she picked him up, "I'm sorry I didn't wake up earlier. Momma was tired after the_ Claw's_ fuel rods burned out and she needed to replace them."

Jan carried Morgan to the kitchen and found a bottled of formula. "There you go," she said when his tiny mouth found the nipple and greedily began to suck down his breakfast. Capturing Saks two nights ago had been her first mission since Morgan's birth. She'd had to wait until she'd stopped nursing him as well as when he began to eat actual baby food. That last part was still a challenge.

Once his bottle was drained she put it in the sink to wash it later. She carried him back to the nursery and opened his little closet. "So what do you want to wear today?" she asked him even though all he could do was babble incoherent nonsense.

Jan pulled out little green outfit. "This one?"

He sucked his thumb in reply. "No I didn't think so either. How about this yellow one?" Morgan played a strand of her brown hair instead of looking at the selection.

"Alright, well how about the blue jumpsuit with the red shirt?" Jan offered to him. Morgan responded and by looking up into his mother's eyes and saying, "Aboo."

"Good choice, honey."

Jan set her son on the changing table to remove his dirty diaper and replace it with a fresh one. "Yuck," she said and wrinkled her nose, "I can't wait for you to be toilet trained." Morgan giggled at her funny face. She wrinkled her nose again and rubbed it gently against his tiny one.

Morgan laughed again and grabbed a handful of her hair. Jan pulled away before he could give it a good hard tug. "Okay now let's get dressed so we can play."

She dressed her son and then left him in his crib while she put on some clean clothes. Jan returned to the nursery and scooped him back up. Now that Morgan could crawl, she had gotten rid of the coffee table so they could have a bare spot on the floor to play. She put down a couple of toys and played little imaginary games with him to make him laugh. How she loved the sound of his little laugh!

Jan was on her back with Morgan lying on her chest sucking the foot of his furry bush monkey toy—a six months birthday gift from Angel—when Mon Mothma's image appeared on the holoprojector.

The Chief of State could see her operative lying on the floor with her son on top of her and half-frowned, half-smiled at the sight. "Are you alright, Jan?"

"Yes," she replied, holding Morgan close to her chest as she stood up, "The evil King Palpatine was being conquered by the Allied Resistance when Morgan decided he'd had enough."

"Well war is exhausting," Mon Mothma said with a smile, "Is your nanny available to take care of him? There is something I have to discuss with you and Angel."

"But I just got home," Jan said while rubbing the soft hair on her son's head.

"I'm aware of that, Jan, but this is important."

Jan nodded in understanding. "What time do you want me there?"

"In an hour's time if possible."

"It is."

"Good, I'll see you then." Mon Mothma smiled at the baby, "Goodbye Morgan."

The baby responded by babbling out a bit of baby talk. The Chief of State gave him a little wave and then blinked out. Jan breathed in the sweet scent of her son's hair. "Momma's got to get back to work."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

With her precious baby in Mindy's capable hands, Jan took a transport to the Capital building. Mon Mothma's Twi'lek secretary gave her a smile. "Good morning, Miss Ors."

"Good Morning, Lita," Jan replied.

"Mr. Matic and Mon Mothma are waiting for you inside."

"Thanks," Jan said before walking into the room. Mon Mothma locked eyes with her when she opened the door. "Sorry I'm late. Morgan spit up on my shirt so I had to change and then wait for Mindy to come."

"It's perfectly fine, Jan," Mon Mothma assured her with a smile, "I know you have other responsibilities now."

"Responsibilities I'd like to get back to," Jan said.

"I understand so we'll get started then." Mon Mothma handed each of them a data pad. "We received rumors that someone is massing together a small Imperial armada."

"That ain't good," Angel said.

"Indeed not. There is an Imperial base discovered that seems to be receiving coded transmissions from a secret source. I would like both of you to check it out and see if these rumors are true."

"How long do you think this will take?" Jan asked.

"Perhaps a few days."

Jan bowed her head, missing her dear son already though she hadn't even left yet.

"Ma'am, perhaps I could do this alone," Angel suggested, "This way She-cat can be with her little cub."

"Oh no, Angel, I wouldn't ask that of you," Jan said.

"I have to agree with Jan. This will be easier and much faster if both of you are involved," Mon Mothma replied.

"When do we leave?" Jan asked.

"Will two days be ample time?"

She nodded in reply. "I'll tell Mindy."

"Good." Mon Mothma gave Jan a smile. "I'm still amazed by you, Jan."

"What do you mean?"

"Two years ago you would be chomping at the bit to go on high profile missions and now you'd rather stay home."

"I've got a good reason to stay now," Jan replied, smiling as she thought about Morgan. "Don't worry, Mon Mothma, he won't distract me on this mission."

"I have full confidence in you," she replied with only honesty in her voice, "You may both go now if you wish."

Angel followed Jan out of the office and past the secretary. "Mind if I go with you?" he asked, "I'd like to see the cub."

"I guess it has been over a week since he's seen his Uncle Angel," she replied.

Angel followed her home and played with Morgan after Mindy had left. It was an amusing sight seeing the giant, bear of a man crouched down on the floor tickling the baby's feet. But after a little while he left, leaving Jan alone with her son.

She got him another bottle and sat down in the rocking chair to feed him. "Oh Morgan, I'm going to miss you when I leave," she said when he started to close his little brown eyes. "You promise to be good when momma's gone?"

Morgan reached up and patted his mother's chin. Jan captured the tiny hand and pressed it to her lips. Tears stung at her eyes but she refused to cry in front of her baby. He fell asleep but instead of putting him in his crib, Jan held him tight, treasuring this precious moment.

* * *

Amilok was where the Imperial base was located and the _Raven's Claw_ wasn't too far away from it, but her captain barely noticed as she sat on her bed in her quarters. Jan was thinking about her son. Oh she knew Mindy would take good care of him, but she hated being away from him for so long.

Sometimes she considered quitting her work as an operative and working as a full time mechanic instead, but the money was much better this way. Besides, she liked making a difference to the galaxy, helping to wipe out the Imperial stench forever. She wanted her little boy to be proud of her when he was older.

She dug into her pocket and pulled out a picture of Morgan, Unfortunately another picture fell out, one she had forgotten to remove. She placed both the picture of her son and the picture of his father side by side, staring at the similarities. They had the same brown hair and eyes, the same nose and mouth. It was amazing how much they looked alike. The only difference was that she loved one and hated the other.

"Well at least you left me with more than a broken heart this time," she said to the picture of her former friend. She grabbed the picture and briefly considered tossing it down the garbage chute. But she changed her mind and hid it in the drawer on the night stand. Jan put the picture of Morgan back in her pocket and left her room to return to the cockpit.

"We're almost there, Angel," she said, banging on his door.

The deep, wall shaking, snoring ended. "I'm up, I'm up," she heard Angel reply though it was muffled by the door.

Jan went to the cockpit and took over the controls. Amilok was an ice planet, her least favorite climate. Being cold and wet was something she would much rather avoid. She had been on Hoth back during the war and she'd actually considered thanking the Imperials for invading so she could leave that wasteland of ice and snow.

"Hope you remembered to pack your thermal suit," Jan said to Angel when he walked into the cockpit.

"I surely did." He looked out the window with a smile. "Ain't it beautiful?"

"You like snow?"

"I grew up on Kilara where it's winter all the time," Angel said.

"I'd be sick of snow if I were you," Jan replied with a grin.

"Well one of the good things about me bein' so big is that I won't be so cold as a little thing like you will."

Jan rolled her eyes at the injustice. "Life isn't fair to us poor females."

She landed the _Raven's Claw_ inside a clearing in the forest. Jan geared up in the skin tight thermal suit that would help to keep her warm while at the same time being light enough to not hamper her movements. She'd have some thermal blankets and hot drinks ready for them when the got back. Jan knew she would need both.

The Imperial base was snuggled between two mountains, a decent hiding spot but Jan had seen better. Of course the ice planet was enough a deterrent to where it was less likely they would be discovered.

Now dressed as best as she could for the cold, Jan strapped two blasters to her waist and joined Angel at the exit. "You ready?" he asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be considering I'm about to be an icicle."

Angel laughed and opened the door for her. "Then let's get to it."

They decided to climb the hill and infiltrate from the roof. It was a one story base so it wouldn't be a problem, or at least it shouldn't have been.

Angel unfolded a compact sniper rifle and took out the two guards with two quick shots. He and Jan carefully finished the rest of length up the hill. Angel gave Jan a boost so she could swing over onto the roof. "You used to be a lot lighter," he whined once she was over.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you to never discuss a woman's weight, especially if she just had a baby?"

"I reckon she did, but I guess I forgot it."

She shook her head at him as he took a giant leap to join her on the roof. "I hope you didn't shake the roof when you landed."

"Oh I'm sure it's fine. They'll probably think it was an avalanche," he replied, grinning through the snowfall.

Jan smiled back and stepped out of the way to look for a way in. "There's a hatch over here," she said and knelt down to crush the snow away from the door.

"Do you need a key card?" Angel asked.

Jan shook her head. "It requires a pass code. I could hack it, but that would take time."

"So what're you going to do?"

She reached down to her waist and pulled out her fusion cutter. She turned it on and sliced away the seal. Angel picked up the heavy metal cover and carefully slid it to the side. "I'll go first and then I'll hold you up when you come down so you can recover it," Angel said.

"Sounds good."

Despite his size, Angel was very quiet when he jumped down into the base. Jan gripped the edges of the open hatch once Angel opened his arms to grab her. His enormous hands wrapped around her waist. It was small enough to where he could almost make his hands meet so obviously her weight really wasn't an issue.

Once he had a good hold on her, Jan grabbed the hatch cover and pulled it back into place. Angel brought Jan gently to the ground without any trouble. "So where to now?"

"Control," she said, "It won't be easy to get there, but once we do I can hack into the network and find out who's sending these transmissions."

Angel yanked two very large, very high-tech, blasters from his belt. "I'm ready."

"I'll say," Jan said, eyeing his guns, "I might have to borrow those some day."

"No one touches my guns without my permission," he warned her.

Jan laughed at his response. Why were men so territorial when it came to their weapons? She only took out one of her ordinary blasters, saving the second one only for tough situations.

"How crowded do you think this place is?" Angel asked.

Jan shrugged as they walked down a corridor. "It's pretty small so I'd say not very."

A shot hit the wall two inches from Angel's head. "Sithspit!" Jan yelled and instantly began to fire.

It was only one young officer so he was down in a matter of seconds but their cover was blown. "We're going to have to fight our way there," Jan said.

"Me and my twin girls can handle it."

_Twin girls? Men are idiots_.

She shook her head at him and they kept on walking. They needed to save their energy for later because they would most certainly have to run soon. Four men appeared behind them, two of them were shirtless so Jan assumed they had come out of their quarters.

Angel fired one shot from his left blaster. Half way to the men, the pulse split in two and hit two of the men in their chests. Jan took down the other two with two quick blasts to their heads. "Okay, I need a new gun," she said to him.

"I'll get you one for your birthday," Angel promised.

"I'm holding you to that."

They turned a corridor and saw that someone had laid out grenades for them. "They don't want us to go this way," Jan said, "So I think we should."

"We're of like mind's She-cat."

"Whatever you do, don't trip," she warned him, a piece of advice he was already aware of.

Jan stood on her toes so she could be more flexible as she stepped around the shield that was bubbled around the actual grenade. With the grace her mother—the ballerina—had taught her, she weaved through the little maze, still on the balls of her feet. When she reached the last grenade, she stepped back onto her right foot and then leapt over it, landing on the toes of her left foot.

"Wow, She-cat," Angel said while he looked at her from across the hallway, "I don't think I can do that."

"Well what are you going to do?"

Angel fiddled around with the back of his gun and then fired a single shot in the center of the hallway. The pulse was a light blue and when it touched the floor it sent out a wave of energy that shut down all of the grenades.

"Why didn't you tell me you could do that?" Jan demanded.

"I was about to, but what you were doing looked so pretty I didn't want to interrupt you."

"Next time, do," Jan said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. _I've got to get me one of those._

In the right corridor, they saw a room filled with glass windows. "That's control," she said, "Now you need to be careful. Use small blasts and don't blow up any of the consoles. It could ruin our plans if you do."

"Don't worry, She-cat, I'll be careful."

Jan ran down the hall and blasted open the glass windows as she did. She stopped and hid behind the wall on the other side. Angel stayed across the hall, looking at her for their next move. She motioned for him to stay there.

Two Imps walked out Control. At the same time Jan and Angel both fired, each taking out one of them. "Go!" she shouted.

She and Angel ran towards the Control Room. There were three officers inside but only one had his blaster ready. Angel had reset one of his blasters to where the bolt was needle thin. I pierced the heart of the one who was armed before he could shoot. Jan fired at the remaining men who had been sitting down.

"Cover for me," she directed Angel when they entered the room filled with bodies and broken glass. Jan shoved one of the dead Imps out of their chair and sat down.

The console was untouched minus that fact that blood spattered the screen. Jan took of the dead man's hat and wiped away the red droplets. She inserted a computer spike so she could get access then went to work typing away at the keyboard.

She checked the commander's log but found nothing interesting. The base was a scrubber. It picked up the transmissions from other bases, scrubbed them for bugs, and then scrambled their codes so only the Imperials could read it. "Wow, they did a good job."

"What'd you mean?"

"It means this is going to have to take longer than I thought."

"Well you better hurry, She-cat, 'cause we've got company."

Jan heard blaster fire but didn't look back. She couldn't waste a second at this point. She slipped in a virus transfer. The virus she uploaded had specific instructions to break the cypher keeping their security codes in check. She tapped her fingers on the table while she waited for the virus to upload. There was a chance that the base had firewalls in place to detect and destroy viruses like this. If that was the case then they were screwed.

Codes filled the screen, a sign that brought relief to Jan. The virus had worked. Now she had complete control of their network.

Angel was still firing away behind her. Apparently the entire base had showed up to try and kill them. She hoped his twin girls had enough power to last long enough for her to finish.

Jan inserted her data-chip and typed in a command to bring up all transmissions. There were hundreds and there wasn't time to go through them so she downloaded them onto the chip. However, there was one transmission that read 'Urgent Report'.

She opened it and read the name of the sender: Commander Castin Mohc.

_Mohc?_ she thought, _Not _the _Mohc. He can't be related to _that _Mohc._

Jan wanted to read the message but before she could the screen went black. "They've cut off the central power!" she called out to Angel.

"What does that mean?"

"It means we need to go!" Jan slipped the data-chip into her pocket and pulled out her blaster.

"Can we go back the way we came?" She asked Angel.

"Give me a sec." Angel fired both blasters at the same time. This time their pulse shots split into four needles. Each tiny shot sought a target and hit the five men remaining in their heads.

"Where do you get those?" Jan asked.

"I made them myself. Like I said, I'll make you one for your birthday."

"We better run," Jan told him, "I'm sure there are more of them and they'll be coming soon."

"Right behind you, She-cat."

Their boots stomped hard on the floor as they sprinted for the hatch. The corridor where the grenades were was now filled with men, each with a gun. "Sorry, wrong way," she teased at the Imps, firing at them as she ran.

She went in the opposite direction, praying she could find the way out. Shots were coming at them from behind. She heard Angel let out a grunt. "Are you hit?!"

"I'll be fine," he replied.

Jan was worried but she didn't have time to check on his wound. She brought him down another corridor and this one led to the hatch.

Angel leapt up and punched the cover away. He then reached down and tossed Jan up the hole. She managed to grab the sides so she didn't go flying through the air. Jan waited for Angel to jump up before she covered the hole again.

"Give me a minute," she told him. Jan pulled out her welding stick and melted the steel around the edges to keep the Imps locked inside. "That won't hold forever. We've got to hurry."

The both ran down the hill, being careful to not trip and roll into the forest that was below it. Once they were in the trees, they slowed their pace to a brisk walk. "That went pretty well," Angel commented.

"Where did you get shot?"

"Just grazed my arm, see." He showed her a rather deep gouge on the side of his right arm, "S'okay. We can fix it when we get back to the ship."

"You'll have to wait until we're out of the system," Jan said.

Voices sounded behind them, but they didn't stop to look, just took of running again. "Damn! I thought it would take them longer than that to get through," Jan said. She had her blaster out but so far they weren't close enough to fire.

The _Raven's Claw_ had never looked more beautiful to them. It was covered with a thick blanket of white snow and some green needles that had fallen from the trees. They both reached it at the same time, but Angel let Jan get inside first.

She made it to the cockpit in record time and fired up the engines. The deep hum of the ship rumbling to life was a comfort to them both. She kept it on manual control so she could safely fly out of the trees. The Imperials were firing at her ship with their blasters but the shield kept them from getting through.

Jan held her breath until they broke atmosphere and only the stars were around them. "That was some good flyin' there She-cat!" Angel called to her.

Jan breathed out a sigh of relief and leaned back into her pilot's chair. She was exhausted from the whole ordeal…but boy that had been fun!

* * *

"Castin Mohc?" Mon Mothma repeated, "Are you sure?"

Jan and Angel were both in her office after returning from their mission only an hour ago. A suspicious thought was forming in Jan's mind and she didn't look happy while she pondered over it.

"I'm positive," Jan said.

Mon Mothma shook her head and sat back down in her seat. "I honestly didn't see this one coming."

"I don't get it," Angel said, "What's this big deal about this Mohc fella?"

Jan looked at the Chief of State hard. "He's General Mohc's son, isn't he?"

Her voice was an eerie calm, a warning sign Mon Mothma had learned to detect after years of working with her. "Now Jan—."

"You knew that mad man had a son, and you didn't tell me!" Jan yelled now and jumped out of her chair.

"Jan, please control yourself."

"Don't you realize what this means?" Jan asked with her fists curled into tight balls, "Castin could be out for revenge, out for my blood!"

"It's possible," Mon Mothma admitted, "but you are probably the least of his worries. I doubt he wants you more than—."

"I know who did most of the work and I don't want to hear his name," she hissed.

Jan's rage towards her partner used to be only a small degree, but now it appeared that she refused to speak his name. This was a bit of a surprise to Mon Mothma considering Jan bore him a child.

"Please, Jan, you must calm down. I can't explain everything when you're acting like this."

There are various degrees of calm. There is perfect serenity where nothing in the universe can bother the person. There is moderate peace where the individual is simply in a normal mood. Then there is the calm before the storm, when all of the anger is simply locked in a very small box and is dying to break free. The latter is how Jan felt now.

"I know where this is stemming from," Mon Mothma said once Jan had resumed her seat, "And let me assure you I will not let anything happen to Morgan. As far as I know, Castin has shown no interest in you so your son is quite safe."

This knowledge allowed Jan to uncurl her fists. "Now if I may continue," Mon Mothma said, "we were aware that Rom Mohc had a son but he was a mediocre commander, hardly noticeable. He dropped off the radar after the war. It was assumed that he was dead."

"Obviously he ain't," Angel voiced.

Mon Mothma nodded at him. "Did you go through the data-chip, Jan?"

"I couldn't get all of the transmissions, only a half a year's worth," she explained, "the latest one mentioned how he had one Star Destroyer and nine cruisers ready. But that was last year."

"He may have managed to double that number now," Mon Mothma replied with a heavy sigh, "Was there anything else?"

"He's pissed off at someone named Ganis," Jan said with a shrug.

"That's everything?"

Jan nodded. "Unless you want supply reports."

"At least we have a start, albeit not much of one," Mon Mothma admitted, "I want you both to be prepared to ship out on a moments notice. I don't know how dangerous this situation is but I always believe in being ready for anything."

"That's a good idea 'cause I've got a bad feeling about all of this," Angel concurred with her.

"Go on, both of you, and Jan," she stopped her just as she was leaving her chair, "It will be alright."

Jan nodded. "I'll make sure it is," she replied before waking out of the office to see her child.

Angel looked over at Mon Mothma and said, "That there is a momma bear."

* * *

There were many legacies that existed from Jan's frantic search for Kyle eighteen months ago, her anger, her son and also her psychiatrist. Try as she may Jan couldn't convince Mon Mothma to override Helena Bandon's orders and let her stop taking these sessions. It irked Jan to no end that a simple doctor had that small bit of power over her life.

"The mission was great," Jan said staring out the window behind Bandon obviously bored, "I really liked being back on active duty. It was wonderful to actually accomplish something," she paused for a moment, "I missed Morgan though, I expected that but it still hit me hard, it was weird suddenly the _Claw_ seemed too quiet, I needed to hear his little laugh."

"So you feel good about the mission?" Dr. Bandon asked.

"Of course, it was a success, we escaped with minimal injuries and Angel promised to make me one of his specialty blasters for my birthday," Jan explained, "but now that I know Castin Mohc is out there…I can't shake this feeling that something bad is going to happen." She turned to the doctor, "I went through hell during the Dark Trooper Project, especially with General Mohc, what that man put me through…no human being should ever be so cruel."

"I recall reading reports that he tortured you," Dr. Bandon said, "that must have been terrible."

"Yes that is saying it in the nicest possible way," Jan agreed, "he'd torture me, bring me to death and then bring me back only to start all over again. I should have died, I would have died if not for…" her voice trailed off and once more her eyes turned into blue storms of anger.

"But if you were only an accessory why should his son feel any anger towards you?"

"Hatred isn't an easy thing to explain, I was there, it was my rescue that caused his father's death; in his eyes I am partly to blame."

"But you don't know that he really feels that way for sure," Bandon pointed out."

Jan shook her head, "I know that I just…something is happening, something big and I'm going to be right in the middle of it, I know it."

Helena was silent for a while before she spoke again, "Jan why won't you say Kyle's name?"

Jan whirled around to glare at the little woman, "I don't want to talk about him."

"Is there any particular reason why?"

"Plenty, most of them are curse words."

The doctor sighed, "Jan, Kyle is the root of most of your problems, opening up is the only way we can fix those problems."

"I don't understand why I am still here," Jan exclaimed, "I'm fine now, I'm not looking for…him, I'm not even thinking about looking for him, I eat at least three meals a day…okay I don't get that much sleep but I have a baby so that's expected. I'm back on active duty and I'm in no way hearing voices or hallucinating," She turned back to the doctor, "I'm fine! So why am I still here?"

Dr. Bandon put aside her notebook and looked into Jan's eyes, "Do you still dream Jan?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said that you used to dream that Kyle loved you, do you still dream about that?" she asked again, "or do you dream now about him returning, about you being a family with him, finally having that perfect ending?"

Jan didn't respond, her face was blank as she just looked at the woman for a moment, finally she said quietly, "And if I do?"

Bandon sighed, "I'm going to tell you what I think. I think you and Kyle grew too close, too close to be friends and partners, you became one unit and it hurts you for him to be gone, perhaps even lethally. However now you have found a surrogate of sorts, something else to hold on to now that he is gone: your son.

"I believe you still obsess over Kyle only now you no longer express it with madness but with anger, and this obsession is going to continue until you learn to forgive Kyle. Forgive him for leaving you and hurting you like he did…only then will you finally be free."

"Forgive Kyle," Jan finally spoke, "That's what I have to do for you to finally end these sessions?"

The doctor nodded, "That's right."

Jan sighed with disappointment and resignation, "I'm going to be coming to you until the day I die."

* * *

When Jan finally got back to her apartment she felt the weight of her last meeting with Dr. Bandon leave her. She always felt drained after those visits, like spilling her guts was actually physically tiring. Alright it wasn't the talking that tired Jan out it was the constant battle to try not to reveal too much to the doctor.

_I probably drive her crazier than she does me_ Jan realized with a pang of regret; then again the woman wouldn't let her off the hook even after she'd been the model operative for the Republic for a year and a half now.

Of course it was hard to feel anything but joy when she finally got to be with Morgan again, it was amazing how energized she felt again once she saw his little face. Jan tried to let him crawl around on the floor but he seemed more interested in letting her hold him, he loved to play space ship, whizzing through the air but still safe in her arms.

A blinking light from her telescreen broke through the merriment of playing with her son, carrying the cooing Morgan she pressed a button and the hologram of Luke Skywalker was standing in front of her.

"Hello Jan, everything going good with you?"

"Things are fine here Luke," she told him, "How about at the academy?"

"Everything is going well here Jan," Luke replied, "we're rebuilding slowly but there is a lot of progress, but still a lot of work too."

Jan smiled, "You didn't call me up to give me the time of day did you Luke?"

"You're right Jan," Luke said, "I heard about your latest mission, that you intercepted some transmissions between Castin Mohc and a man named Ganis."

"Do you know who Ganis is?"

Luke nodded, "Possibly, I've been looking into reports of a young Sith lord, there isn't much said about him. He has a few followers, none of which are very powerful but I've heard rumors that Ganis has a special power on his own."

"What is it?" Jan asked curious and concerned.

"I don't know," he admitted, "but everything I hear about it suggests that it is something to be afraid of."

Jan shook her head, "Great, I'm never going to be rid of Sith am I?"

"It appears not," he agreed, "that's why I'm going to send one of my students to travel with you, to investigate the Sith and help out."

She glared at Luke's form and sized him up, "Don't tell me you're sending…"

"He is a logical choice Jan."

"He is a hormone crazed kid that needs a good smack down."

"Cole is all of those things," Luke agreed, "But he is also very powerful in the Force in his own right, he excels at his studies…"

"And seducing young girls."

"Are you afraid that you won't be able to handle him?" Luke asked a mischievous grin on his face.

"Oh I can handle him," Jan explained, "I 'handle' him by breaking bones."

"But you work well with him and he'll listen to you, you were good with him last time, he even came back a little bit wiser."

Jan snorted, "How long did that last?"

"He can help you, I wouldn't be sending him if I didn't believe he could do this," Luke told her.

"I know," Jan sighed, "this just means I'm going to have to lock my doors at night."

"I'm sure he learned his lesson last time."

"Don't count on it."

Luke laughed for a few minutes and Jan smiled with him, Morgan looked up from her shoulder and looked at the hologram in front of him. He seemed to study the Jedi for a moment before resting his head back on his mother's shoulder and began to suck his thumb.

Luke looked at the child in Jan's arms, "Your son is very aware."

"He's smart," Jan said proudly.

"He's strong," Luke commented, "like his father."

"Morgan is nothing like his father," Jan snapped.

"I think father and son are more alike than you want to admit," he disagreed, "The Force is strong with them both, they both have a gift for it."

"Luke my son is only nine months old," Jan interjected, "he's not ready to join your academy."

"I wasn't suggesting that," Luke told her, "I'm simply stating a fact, you can't escape the power of the Force anymore than your son can." He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, hesitant to press further with some information that he had obtained but a part of him knew that she deserved to hear this, "I've been hearing more reports about the Sith."

"Really?" Jan asked curious as to why he was turning the conversation in that direction.

Luke nodded, "It appears that someone is hunting them down, eradicating places that were entrenched in the Dark Side, this person is doing a lot of good," he admitted and looked at her carefully, "I believe that it may be Kyle."

"I don't want to hear about this," Jan said quickly once his name had escaped Luke's lips, "I don't want to hear anything about him, not where he is, what he is doing, not even his name!"

"You can fight him all you want Jan," Luke told her, "but I have a feeling that yours and Kyle's paths will meet again."

"I pray you're wrong," Jan told him, "For his sake."

* * *

Castin Mohc didn't know what to expect when he was called to Ganis's chambers. The Dark Lord had already heard about the attack on Amilok but he hadn't made any mention of it. Castin didn't think the infiltration was serious, the only thing that came of it was the recordings from the base revealed that a woman had attacked his base. Jan Ors.

Ors would die by his hands, but not until he had Katarn. He wanted that traitor to watch as his woman died the slowest, most vile death possible. Then he would let Katarn wallow in his grief until he was a mad man. He would beg for death, but Castin would have none of it. He would die like an animal, the ultimate vengeance for his father's death.

Ganis was waiting for him, watching the same vid recording of the Amilok infiltration that Castin had watched earlier. "I suppose you fear that I will punish you for this," the Sith said, "but you needn't worry. I'm glad this happened. It has allowed me to study the woman more closely."

"And what have you found?"

"Immeasurable spirit, as well as beauty. It's easy to see why Katarn would claim this woman as his own." Ganis tilted his head to study Ors's face. "She's hiding something. I can see it in her eyes. I might have to visit her shadow and see what secret she is carrying."

"Does this have anything to do with my revenge?" Castin demanded through gritted teeth.

"Indeed," Ganis replied not rankled by the foolish boy's impatience, "We are almost ready to begin."

The news was a great shock to Castin. "We are."

"Yes. Jan Ors will be marked for death, but make sure your men don't kill her. Katarn will find his woman to protect her then you may do what you wish with her, but leave Katarn to me. Once I am done with him then you can get your full revenge."

At last, after waiting for many years, gathering an army and preparing for the assault, they were about to begin their war upon the Republic.

* * *

A/N: So it begins, the real enemies of the story are about to start their assault. What will happen next? You'll have to wait and see. Reviews always stimulate the writing process.


	3. Chapter 2: Down Memory Lane

Disclaimer: We own two Star Wars posters and all of the DVD's, but the characters and universe are not ours. But if you want to make them a christmas present, we will be happy to accept it.

A/N Tinuviel Undomiel: I'm still anticipating shanesnest's review. I'm afraid he might kill us for having Kyle leave Jan pregnant. Oh well, we've earned it from torturing him during the Hurrican Blaze fiasco in The Rise and Fall. "Blaze got Run Over by a Speeder" is still close to my heart..

A/N Nerwen Aldarion: My sister came up with all of these flashbacks and it was just a shame not to write them, so here they are. Don't worry, we'll get back to the mission in the next chapter, as for what happens well you'll just have to wait and see.

**Lord of Anonymous:** Thanks for the review, the first one for this part of the tale. I know you're anxious to see Kyle again and you will soon, as for him finding out about Morgan...well you'll have to wait and see for that one LOL.

* * *

Chapter 2: Down Memory Lane

Cole Reigan had never been to Coruscant when he was traveling alone nearly two years ago. It was too popular of a city and he had wanted to stay unnoticeable. Little did he know that he would run into Imperials who captured him. Thankfully his guardian angel arrived and saved…crap, she'd warned him not to call her that.

Jan Ors was the craziest, scariest and most amazing woman he'd ever met. She was the only one who could knock him down when he was doing his best to be impossible. He liked being impossible around her because she took him seriously, which often led to some pain, but hey, it was nice being treated like an adult…some of the time.

Luke had given him orders to go to Coruscant to meet up with Jan for a mission. He was a few days early, but he didn't think she'd mind.

He pushed the button to signal a visitor. From behind the door he heard a "Coming." then an, "Ow! Damn you Solo for giving him that stupid toy!" All of this was not actually shouted, more like a harsh whisper.

The door finally opened and revealed a very disheveled Jan Ors. This wasn't anything new. Jan always got dirty when working on her ships, but this state of unkemptness was different. Her hair was pulled back but strands fell around her face. Some sort of peach colored gelatinous food stained the front of her shirt. She had a happy sparkle in her eyes, but they immediately narrowed when she saw him.

"Cole Reigan what the hell are you doing here?"

"Surprise," he said with his specialty grin.

"I don't like surprises; they usually end in someone's death. That person may just be you," she replied in her usual tone.

"Aw, Jan, didn't you miss me?"

"That depends," Jan said, "Have you grown up at all since I last saw you?"

"I don't think so?"

"Then perhaps a little," she confessed, "Now its time for you to go."

"Is that any way to treat a guest?" he inquired.

"You're not a guest, you're a rude visitor."

"Well I like that!" he snapped, only half-mad, "I come here early just to say hello and you just—!"

The sound of a young baby giving out a lusty wail shut Cole right up. "Now you've done it," Jan growled at him.

She left the door open, probably forgot about it, and ran to a room off to the side of the living room. Cole took the open door to be an invitation and followed her inside. There was a nursery of sorts beside what he assumed was Jan's bedroom. It was painted blue with little clouds decorating the ceiling. She had put up a border with spaceships on it that matched the mobile hanging over the crib.

"Shh Morgan, its okay," Jan soothed her baby, picking him up to cradle him in her arms, "Momma's very sorry for waking you up." She looked across the room to glare at Cole. "And so is he."

"Give me a couple of minutes to recover," he pleaded while he continued to stare at Jan's son, "That's a baby."

"How astute of you."

"I didn't know that you had a baby," Cole said, "Does Luke know about this?"

"Of course Luke knows about _him_," she corrected.

"What about Angel?"

"He knows too."

Cole scowled at her now. "Are you saying that I'm the only one who doesn't know that you have a baby?!"

Morgan let out another cry so Cole earned yet another glare. "Stop raising your voice," Jan snapped at him, "It's past his naptime and you're not helping any."

"Well what am I supposed to do then?"

"Go sit in the living room, I'll talk to you once Morgan's asleep."

"Deal," Cole replied, partly overwhelmed about finding out Jan had a son and partly mad that he was the only one who didn't know. Wait a minute! There was one other person who was being kept in the dark as well, come to think of it.

Cole was sitting on one of Jan's new tan sofas when she finally came back into the room. "Keep your voice down this time," she instructed.

"Okay," he said, "Can you tell me why no one mentioned that you have a kid?"

"Because you can't keep your mouth shut or your fly zipped."

"Hey, that's not nice," he pretended to grumble but she could see that he was proud about the truth in the last part of that statement. "Is he about nine months old?"

Jan nodded. "Last week, how did you know?"

"Well you slept with Kyle on Illeena, so I figured—."

Jan's gasp cut him off and then she was giving him a poisonous look. "You knew about that!" she hissed in as stern a voice as possible while trying to be quiet at the same time.

"Of course I knew about it," Cole replied, "For starters, I offered Kyle a spare bunk seeing as how he had been planning on moving on when we showed up so he didn't have a place to stay. I noticed he wasn't there when Angel and I got back so I figured he was bunking up with you instead."

"You sneaky little bastard," she said, "you knew this entire time that Kyle and I…" She stopped talking when a horrible thought entered her mind. "You didn't tell anyone did you?"

"Jan, I may be very open about _my_ love life, but I don't go around telling people about someone else's."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Cole."

Cole leaned back on the couch with a smile. "So, I take it Kyle doesn't know he's a daddy."

Jan gave him another heated glare. "Don't mention his name."

"Well, have you told him?"

"Of course I haven't told him. I don't know where he is and I don't care. Everything I need from him is sleeping in that room." Jan nodded her head towards the nursery.

"Sounds like you're all set then. I wish you would have told me about this before. I'd have liked to have helped you through it all."

Jan have him a little smile. "That's sweet, Cole, but I've managed just fine without you."

Cole nodded. Of course she would, she was Jan Ors. She wasn't afraid of anything. "I've got to go get a room somewhere, but it was great walking in on you Jan."

"Don't ever do it again," she warned him but she did have a smile on her pretty face.

"I'll report in a few days for duty," he told her before he left her apartment.

Once he was gone, Jan sat back down on her couch with a long sigh. Cole was a nice kid and she was grateful he hadn't detected her lie. She hadn't needed him during the past year and half, that part was true. But to say she had managed perfectly fine, well that wasn't true at all.

* * *

_Sixteen Months Ago_

"Mon Mothma said something to you, didn't she?" Jan asked Dr. Bandon, surprising the doctor with her forwardness.

She looked up at her patient, "Actually all she said is that you have been a model operative for the last two months, turning reports in on time, taking and finishing missions with success…she thinks you're doing fine."

"But you don't." Jan stated firmly.

Helena nodded, "I see more than most, and when I look at you Jan I see nothing. There's no spark in you eyes, no life; something happened to you, I know it."

"You don't know anything."

But her doctor was having none of it, "I know you met Kyle again and I have feeling that's the reason for your pain, what happened?"

"Nothing."

"I know he left again, did he say something to you? Did you fight? Did he hurt you?"

"Kyle couldn't hurt me," Jan whispered, "at least not intentionally."

"Then what happened?" Dr. Bandon asked again firmly.

Jan looked out the window at the speeders whizzing past at a dizzying rate, the sight of so many speeders going by so quickly soon brought a queasy feeling to her stomach, but still she refused to look away and meet Helena's eyes.

She hadn't told anyone about what had happened between her and Kyle, a part of her was embarrassed that after everything she had done she still couldn't make him stay. Another part of her didn't want to say anything, if she spoke aloud it all might disappear and the wonderful things that had been said between them would be gone.

Still Jan felt like screaming, jumping up and down, throwing things around to prove she wasn't breakable, to prove she was still strong. She wanted to speak out, to tell someone what had happened so that she could cry and let someone else bear the burden with her. She had so many secrets, some she would have to take to her dying grave, but this one, this one she wanted to let out and let someone comfort her and take her side. But she couldn't tell her friends, couldn't bear the pity in their eyes, the whispers they would speak of and the shame they wouldn't help but be able to see.

Yet this woman before her would betray none of that, she had spoken with Jan for a long time and Jan could never tell what the doctor was thinking, if she was sympathetic towards her or did she view Jan as a complainer. She also wouldn't tell anyone, she wasn't allowed to so Jan wouldn't have to fear her speaking to anyone or gossiping about her. Could she tell this woman?

"I slept with him," Jan finally spoke, her eyes still on the view outside so she didn't see Dr. Bandon's eyes widen slightly.

The doctor cleared her throat and took off her glasses, "That's an… interesting development."

"I'm glad you think so," Jan replied, her tone obviously sarcastic.

"And Kyle did not return with you," Dr. Bandon stated.

"No," Jan said, "he didn't." Now she turned to look at the woman, "Please _don't_ ask me how I _feel_ about that!"

"I take it then that you were upset."

"Oh you might say that," Jan agreed once again her tone sarcastic, "I mean, I understand him leaving before; that made sense but this! Now?! After everything that happened, how could he…" Jan swallowed back a wave of nausea and continued, "he just walked out of my life like he didn't have a care in the world, like he didn't care about what we did.

"Contrary to what he might think," Jan continued her angry rant, "_that_ does not happen very often so he is pretty damn lucky, I mean he has no idea about…I just," Jan's voice trailed off as tried to keep her own body under control but the bile continued to rise up her throat and no amount of will power could stop it.

Jan covered her mouth with her hand and rushed across the room to the small trash bin and soon the gagging began. She continued to retch until there was nothing left but a bad taste in her mouth.

She sank to the floor and rested her head against the wall, "Are you alright?" Dr. Bandon asked with genuine concern in her voice.

Jan shook her head, "I hardly know anymore."

* * *

_Fresh air_, Jan thought to herself, _fresh air does a body good. It'll kick out that nausea despite the fact that you've tried ever drug available and still you throw up every ten minutes._

She had decided to go to the old Jedi Temple where the gardens were well kept and the lights of the city were barely seen. Mostly tourists congregated here now, but occasionally you could find a soldier who fought in the Clone Wars beside the Jedi who have come to pay their respects. Jan would have preferred to have gone to a park but it was more peaceful here. And if it would get rid of this blasted nausea she didn't care where she was.

"Jan? Is that you?" a familiar voice of a friend called out to her.

"Luke," Jan said and turned around, "I didn't know you were here on Coruscant."

"I wanted to look through the archives about some Sith ruins found on Hylicon," he explained, "I didn't expect to find you here."

"I just needed a change of scenery," she replied, smiling in hopes that he wouldn't notice her lie. He was looking at her kind of funny.

"Is something wrong Luke?"

"No I just…you know what, never mind. How have you been doing lately?" Luke asked instead of finishing his original thought. She could see the look of concern in his eyes. No doubt his sister had told him that Kyle had abandoned her, again.

"I'm fine, honestly," she said just as another wave of nausea began to hit.

"That's good, I'd hate it to hear that—Jan, are you okay?" he asked when he saw her start to gag. Quickly, Jan ran behind one of the trees and puked her guts out for the third time that day.

"Crap," she said while still behind the tree, "You don't think the keepers will fine me for vomiting on their flowers do you?"

"Are you sick?" Luke said from behind her.

"No," she assured him, turning around to face him again, "I just have a touch of…something. I'm fine really."

Luke was staring at her again with that same weird look. It was like he was trying to study her or something. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"There's something different about you, Jan," he replied, still trying to ascertain what it was, "I sense…," he stopped abruptly. Something seemed to occur to him at that moment. "Did something happen between you and Kyle when you found him two months ago?"

_How did he…? Okay Jan, he's just suspicious, you can fend him off._ "Just our normal arguments, but then he left the next morning."

He wasn't buying it, she could see that. "You must have been happy to see him again after being apart for so long."

_Don't give up. He's just trying to get you to fess up._ "Of course I was happy." However, she couldn't help the bitter look return to her face when she remembered what had ruined her happiness. "And things would have stayed that way after…" _Stupid, Jan, very stupid_.

"After what?" Luke probed.

"After I found him," she replied. _You're screwed._

Luke nodded and rubbed his chin in thought. "I trying to find a better way to ask this, but Jan, did you and Kyle…move to the next level of your friendship?"

_Damn the Jedi and their intuitive minds._ "Wh—what makes you think that?" she stumbled into asking.

"I sense something in you."

Now Jan was completely in the dark about what he just said. "What are you saying exactly?"

"Jan," Luke began, looking very uncomfortable with this conversation, "I think it's possible that you might be…pregnant."

That last made Jan freeze despite the warm sunshine. _No, no way in hell did _that_ happen_. "That's impossible, Luke."

"I can sense a part of the Force in you."

"Well maybe you're just feeling sick or something," Jan replied, "Maybe you caught what I have because I'm not pregnant."

"Jan—."

"No, Luke, I'm not pregnant, you hear? That bastard wouldn't do that to me too."

"So you and Kyle did…" he didn't finish. What was the point?

Jan shook her head at him. "I can't…he couldn't have…no, there's no way…"

"I think you should see a doctor."

"I don't need to see a doctor because I'm not pregnant!" she shouted at Luke.

"Jan, be reasonable," he said in his usual calm voice, "You and Kyle—."

"I need to go home," she told him before storming off down the stone path. Luke didn't follow her. Obviously he had decided that he couldn't force her to listen to him.

_I'm not pregnant_, she thought to herself, _I'm not._

* * *

_Kyle Katarn, you rotten son of bitch, how could you do this to me?_

After five tests—each a different brand—that concluded the same thing, Jan finally admitted it. She was pregnant.

Kyle had gotten her pregnant.

That bastard had gotten her pregnant and then took off without a word.

Jan was lying down on her bed with her eyes closed. She was between vomits at the moment so she was resting, trying to figure out what to do next. Her hands wandered to her stomach where the infant was growing. She wasn't very fond of it right now considering how sick it was making her.

_What am I supposed to do?_ Jan wondered. She hadn't given children much thought. During the rebellion she hadn't had any time to think about it. Heck she hadn't had time for a boyfriend during those years. And afterwards, well there had been more missions with Kyle. She discovered she didn't really want another man, unless it was Kyle. Still, making babies had been way in the back of her mind.

This wasn't right. She was supposed to be married and living in a nice house, not in messy apartment with the father off on the other side of the galaxy. _My mother would kill me if she were alive_. _And dad would go out there and shoot_ _Kyle_. That was actually a pleasant thought.

This was terrible! She couldn't be a mother; she didn't even know where to begin. Her apartment was practically a garbage dumb, not child proof. It was barely even adult proof. She didn't know how to feed a baby or hold one or change a diaper. This was a mistake, a horrible, horrible mistake.

But she did have options. If she didn't think she could do it she could give it up for adoption. However, that would mean seven more months of pure hell being pregnant. She thought back to her time in the rebellion. Some women had been in her situation and just got rid of it; then they wouldn't be taken off active duty. It was like it had never existed to begin with.

That thought didn't sit well for Jan, either that or she was getting nauseous again. _It might be the only way._

_But do you really want to do that? It hasn't done anything wrong._

_It's a mistake. This whole thing was a mistake._

_You didn't think so at the time._

_Well you thought Kyle loved you. This whole thing is his fault really, stupid virile Jedi pig._

_Hey now, remember it was you who started the whole thing. You refused to take no for an answer. _

_Well he didn't exactly protest. Okay he did at first, but once things got started he didn't say no._

_Point being you started it so you are partly to blame._

_Why am I arguing with myself? Maybe it's a pregnancy thing._

Jan shook her head, her eyes still closed. _I can't do this. I just need to end it and then get on with my life_.

With her mind made up, she finally got up from her bed to go to the kitchen. She was hungry but she didn't have much to eat in the apartment. Jan found a carton a blue milk she had purchased yesterday on account it was one of the only things she could keep down thanks to Kyle's offspring.

She was taking a swallow right out of the carton when a voice said, "Hello Jan Ors."

Jan turned around and dropped the carton of milk onto the floor. The pale blue liquid spread out on the floor in every direction, touching her bare feet with a cool kiss.

There was a man in her apartment. How he had gotten in without her noticing was beyond her, but there he was standing in her living room. He had brown hair that was turning grey and brown eyes that looked at her kindly. He had seen a lot of years, some of them hard ones it seemed. But the really strange thing was how he sort of reminded her of Kyle, also he was kind of glowing.

"Have we met?" she asked.

"Not exactly," he said with a smile, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Morgan Katarn."

Jan's eyes widened at the sound of his name. All of the color drained from her face and her heart began to beat rapidly. She slipped on the blue milk and fell onto the kitchen floor.

"Are you alright?" the ghost of Kyle's father inquired.

Now covered in blue milk, Jan managed to climb back to her feet despite the fact that she was shaking. "Just peachy," she said.

"There is no need to be frightened."

"No offense, but have you ever had a ghost appear in your living room?" she asked him.

"Indeed not, but I mean you no harm," Morgan assured her, "I will prove this to you. Do you remember three months ago when you nearly died?"

"How could I forget that?" Jan let out a gasp once it all clicked together. "The voice, the one who told me not to die, that was you?"

Morgan nodded. "I'm not supposed to step into your lives, but it was necessary that you survive."

Jan ran a hand through her hair, pulling more strands loose from the hair-tie. "Look, are you sure you aren't haunting the wrong apartment. I mean, I'm not a Jedi."

"Your son is."

Jan gaped at him. "My son?" she repeated, her hands drifting down to her stomach, "It's a boy?"

"He has a great future before him which is why I have come to beg you not to extinguish his life."

"You know about that?" Morgan nodded again. "Look, it's not something I really want to do, but what choice do I have? I can't be a mother."

"Yes you can, Jan Ors."

"I don't know how."

"You will learn," Morgan said to her.

Jan shook her head. "I can't do this alone."

"You are not alone. You have friends who will help you if you just reach out to them." Jan ran her palms over her stomach, wondering if she could feel the life growing inside of her. "Even now you grow attached," he stated, "You are strong, Jan Ors. I have watched you stand beside my son during his many trials. I can see how much you love him and I know how much you'll love your son."

"I loved Kyle and he abandoned me," Jan said.

"He had his reasons."

"Not good ones," she muttered.

Morgan's ghost let out a little laugh. "Perhaps so, but you will find him again."

"You better hope not or else he'll join you in your Jedi Ghost afterlife," she replied.

He let out another chuckle. "Your anger is justified and it shows your strength of spirit." He turned serious again. "What say you, Jan Ors, will you go through with your plan?"

Her hands were still over her abdomen, tenderly sweeping the place over her womb. A boy grew beneath her hands, a son. Would he look like her or his father? He was sure to have his parents' strong willed spirit, as well as their stubbornness. Still, he'd be a beautiful child, she knew that.

Morgan was right; she didn't really want to get rid of her baby. He was half of Kyle, a joining of them both. He was a product of that night when she had felt truly happy, when she had felt loved.

"All I can say is he better have my brains because his father's judgment is questionable," she said, looking back up into Morgan's eyes. Kyle's eyes.

Morgan smiled back at her. "You are making the right choice Jan Ors."

"I don't know where to begin, though."

"Talk to your friends," he suggested, "They will help you."

Jan rested her arms across her stomach. "Thank you…Morgan."

"Goodbye, Jan," he said her name with the affection a man would for the mother of his grandchild, "I'm afraid we will never meet again."

She looked back down at her abdomen and when she looked up he was gone. Jan let out a long sigh, loneliness was returning fast.

But wait a minute, she wasn't alone. She had someone to care for though he hadn't taken his first breath of life yet. "Well since I'm going to be your mother I guess I better learn to clean up after myself," she said to her unborn child.

"Let's start with the milk your grandfather helped me spill," she teased, "then maybe I can find us something to eat. Hopefully you'll let me keep it down this time."

Jan cleaned up the mess and found a box of crackers to munch on. She could do this, one baby step at a time.

* * *

Jan had asked Mon Mothma if she could meet with her, Han, Luke and Leia in one of the reception rooms available in the capital. She would have invited them to her apartment but it was still too embarrassing a mess to introduce to the Chief of State, despite her efforts to clean it some.

Jan arrived there first, twisting her hands in her lap. She didn't have any reason to be nervous seeing as how interoffice relationships were only frowned upon, not prohibited. Besides, Kyle had left so when things had happened between them they weren't operatives anymore.

Mon Mothma arrived promptly, giving Jan a hello before sitting down in one of the comfortable chairs. There wasn't a table in the room, just several cushioned chairs situated in a circle around the room.

Luke, Han and Leia all arrived in one group. "You don't look so good, Ors," Han voiced when he saw her.

She was nauseous at the moment but she hadn't thrown up yet. "It's nothing serious," she assured him, "Take a seat please."

"What's going on, Jan?" Mon Mothma asked.

"A lot, actually," Jan replied, "I, uh, I called all of you here because I have something important to tell you." She looked over at Luke, "I don't know if Luke told you about his suspicions."

"I haven't told anyone," he assured her.

Jan nodded. "Thank you. I've been trying to figure out the best way to tell all of you, but I think I just need to come out and say it." She took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant."

Luke simply nodded but Han, Leia and Mon Mothma all wore identical expressions of shock. The entire room was silent as three of its occupants took their time digesting this information.

"Please somebody say something," Jan said, unable to take the silence anymore.

"How did this happen?" Leia asked.

"I'm pretty sure the normal way," Han stated. His words earned a stomp on his toe from Leia. He let out a grunt of pain, but didn't respond.

"I'm sure you're all wondering who the father is," Jan said.

Mon Mothma shook her head. "My dear, we know Kyle is the only man you would ever choose."

"Considering how badly you took his departure many months ago, it was easy to ascertain that you were in love with him," Leia agreed.

"Did you and Kyle…" Mon Mothma simply couldn't say the words, so she ignored them instead, "On Illeen?" Jan nodded in reply.

"So you're saying he had sex with you and then he just took off," Han said bluntly.

"General Solo!" Mon Mothma said with a gasp while Jan just blushed.

"Well someone had to say it—ow!" He glared at Leia for stomping on his foot again, "Stop that."

"Control your self then," she instructed.

"Well he is right," Jan said, "Kyle did leave."

"Do you need help finding him?" Mon Mothma asked.

Jan shook her head firmly. "I'm done looking for Kyle. If he can leave after he said that he loved me…well I don't have any reason to find him."

"I think the fact that you're pregnant would negate that," Han replied.

"Kyle does have a right to know he's going to be a father," Luke voiced his opinion.

"He most certainly does not," Jan hissed back, "He may have gotten me pregnant but that doesn't make him a father. If he can leave me again without a word then he's lost every right to be with me or my baby."

"Those are harsh words, Jan," Mon Mothma said, "Later you may reconsider them."

"I'm done with Kyle and that is final."

The Chief of State nodded, but they all knew that she didn't believe her. Jan was stubborn but she had changed her mind before. When it came to Kyle, who knew what she would do.

"What are you going to do?" Leia asked.

"I'm going to be a mother," Jan let out a little laugh, "There's no other way to say it." She pressed a hand to her stomach before saying, "I was going ask…well I was hoping that…"

"Jan, you don't have to ask," Mon Mothma broke in to say, "Of course we'll be here to help you when you need us."

"It's the least we can do," Leia said.

Tears started to but at the corners of Jan's eyes. It could have just been hormones, but Jan knew that she also felt touched behind words. "I don't deserve such friends like you."

"Why ever not?" Mon Mothma asked.

"All of you are so wonderful to me," Jan said, "even after I treated all of you like dirt when I was looking for Kyle, you still stood by me." She stopped to wipe at her eyes. "I'm really sorry at what I said and did during that time. You were just trying to help."

"One thing about friends that I've learned," Han said, "They're always there to help, and they're always willing to forgive."

Jan couldn't stop another tear from falling. All the while, Leia looked at her dearest love with a smile, "That was sweet, Han."

"Don't tell anyone I said that. It'll ruin my reputation."

The laughter that followed was a welcomed. It helped to cleanse the room of regrets and sorrows, as well as strengthened the bonds of friendships in an unbreakable force.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

_Present Day_

Jan shook her head at all of the memories. Kyle's father had been right; keeping her son had been the best decision she had ever made. Her friends had been there for her. Leia had helped her find her new apartment and shopped for baby stuff. Luke had assured her that her son was strong; his Jedi senses could feel that. And Han had teased her about her size, making her smile when she needed it.

Mon Mothma and the others had all been there when Morgan was born. And all of them loved him now.

The gentle cry of her son told her that he was awake and was hungry. Jan smiled and left the living room. "Momma's coming, darling."

* * *

Jan was called into Mon Mothma's office along with Angel and Cole. Her message had said that it was urgent which meant it dealt with their last mission. She knew it also meant she would be shipping out again, leaving Morgan with Mindy.

She arrived and saw that Angel and Cole were already inside, but Mon Mothma was missing. "She'll be here soon," Angel told her after seeing her quizzical expression.

"What have you been up to Cole?" Jan asked once she sat down.

"Angel is letting me stay with him."

"Then he's a bigger idiot than I thought," she replied, giving Angel and playful slap on the shoulder.

Mon Mothma walked in through the side door and smiled. "Hello Jan and Angel, and you must be Cole Reigan."

Cole stood up from his chair to shake her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

"Luke spoke highly of you."

"He did?" Jan asked, feigning surprise.

"You know Luke likes me, Jan," Cole said as he resumed his seat.

"In small doses."

Angel laughed at that while Mon Mothma just smiled. "Let me explain why I brought you all here," she began, "An intelligence officer just intercepted a transmission from what we believe is another one of Castin Mohc's bases."

"What do we know?" Jan asked.

"Not much, we believe it's another transmitter base like the one you found on Amilok."

"That's good," Angel said, "Mean we might be able to find out where this Castin fella is."

"Indeed, but I understand that Castin may be being led by a Sith Lord," Mon Mothma said, "That makes this operation all the more dangerous."

"And brings me into the equation," Cole said with a smile.

"Don't get too excited," Jan warned him, "Sith are nothing to be trifled with."

"She's right, however it is unlikely you will run into any Sith seeing as how this base is very small," Mon Mothma said.

"When do we leave?" Angel asked.

"Tomorrow if possible."

"It is," Jan assured her.

"Good," Mon Mothma said. A look of concern crossed her face. "Please be careful, all of you."

Jan smiled. "Don't we always come out okay?"

"Yes, but not always unscathed."

* * *

A/N: Now you know what happened between Part 1 and Part 2. The next chap is already being written. Reviews always inspire us to work faster.


	4. Chapter 3: A Woman Scorned

Disclaimer: Don't own anything pertaining to the Star Wars Universe.

A/N Tinuviel Undomiel: This was a hard chapter to write seeing as how over half of it is action. However, I'm very proud of how it turned out. Especially the second to last scene where Jan finally gets some vengeance. Do read and enjoy

A/N Nerwen Aldarion: This is probably my favorite chapter yet, with one of my favorite scenes towards the end. It was fun to write and the action is really good, seriously my sister outdid herself this time

**shanesnest:** Jan being a mother is really sweet. We always thought she'd be a great mom. The scene with her and Morgan (Kyle's father) is one of our favorites too. Loved the start of The Rise and Fall Bookt 2. We're waiting, impatiently, for the next chap.

**Lord of Anonymous:** It's always fun talking to you with PM's. We are also impatiently waiting for your story. Do tell us when you've posted it.

For those interested we have a playlist that we made up for Dare to Dream, a bunch of songs that we think help capture both parts of the story.

01. **It Ends Tonight by All-American Rejects-** I realy think this fits the prologue to Part I, it really seems to be exactly what Kyle is thinking when he leaves

02. **My Immortal by Evanescence**- Jan's feelings after Kyle left, espeically since she is seeing visions of him

03. **Tomorrow by SR-71**- Castin's theme, I think that the angry out of control music and lyrics really fit him

04. **Prelude 12/21 by AFI**- Ganis's theme, the cold calm and calculating sound of this song fits him perfectly

05. **Here Without You by 3 Doors Down**- This song really seems to reflect Kyle's feelings of life on the run without Jan or any of his friends really

06. **Need by Hana Pestle**- Another Jan's feelings song but this one seems more desperate and speaks more towards her search for Kyle

07.** I'm Broken by Amy Lee (Evanescence) and Seether- **A great duet that really fits Kyle and Jan and the way they both need each other

08. **Before the Dawn by Evanescence- **Their love theme, really sweet and romantic I think so at least

09. **Angels or Devils by Dishwalla-** This one fits Kyle the second time he leaves, about his need to quell the darkness inside of him.

10. **Sober by Kelly Clarkson**- This totally fits Jan after Kyle has left and she is dealing with her coming motherhood, how she isn't certain how she will go on but knows that she must

11. **Going Under by Evanescence**- Jan's anger towards Kyle, the rock music totally expresses this but even in her anger she is still falling for him.

12.** I Caught Myself by Paramore- **About Jan not wanting to get caught in her feelings for Kyle again, she doesn't think that is what she wants

13. **Far Away by Nickelback- **Kyle's feelings after he realizes his mistake and how he wants to get things back on track with Jan

14. **Whatever it takes by Lifehouse- **Kyle's promise to Jan and himself to fix his mistakes, a great way to end the track really

Yes we do realize that having a playlist for a story qualifies us as crazy but it's fun to listen to and really gets us in the mood to write this fic. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 3: A Woman Scorned

Over the years as an operative Jan had perfected the art of packing lightly and in a hurry, take an extra change of clothing because you don't know what might happen such as having to escape with the garbage (that wasn't fun), small toiletries are also necessary as well as a fully stocked medical pack to take care as many minor injuries as possible. She usually included weapons with her one bag but since Morgan had been born she'd taken to leaving her weapons on the _Claw_.

Leaving Morgan turned out to take a lot more time.

Jan was frantically picking up toys and his baby blanket at the same time instructing Mindy on what to do with her small son, "His favorite toy isn't the wookie cub anymore it's his stuffed bantha."

She tossed the worse for wear wookie cub in a bin and handed the somewhat new bantha to Mindy, "He's teething which means he is chewing on _everything_ so don't leave anything out unless you like baby drool on it."

Jan rushed over to the cooler unit, "I have some cold teething rings in here, if he starts to cry, give him one and it will help," she assured the nanny.

"He's sleeping through the night now so that shouldn't be a problem but if he wakes up just feed him and that should put him right out again." She looked towards the small storage closet, "I've bought extra diapers and there are more bottles in there as well."

Jan looked around the room, "what am I forgetting?" She muttered aloud, "Oh!" she rushed back over to the cooler unit, "he doesn't like Barabel fruit but really likes shuura so if he decides to be picky one night that should do the trick."

She took one more look around the apartment, "I guess that's everything," she walked over to the small play area she had set up. Morgan was in the middle playing with a small ball, she picked him up and cuddled him close to her chest, "Momma's got work to do Morgan, but I'll be back soon, I promise."

"Agah!" Morgan cooed and reached out to Jan's cheek.

She wrapped her fingers around his little hand and nuzzled his soft little cheek, "I'll miss you little one." Jan set her son down in his play pen again, this time he didn't go back to the ball he'd been playing with instead he looked up at Jan with his big brown eyes, a serious expression on his face.

Jan couldn't help but remember Luke's words; yes her son was very aware, to the point where she could almost swear he knew that she was leaving. She sighed and shouldered her bag, "I better go before I lose the nerve," she said to Mindy.

Mindy smiled, "I'll take care of him, Miss Ors, your son will be safe with me, I promise."

"I know," Jan said, "I'll keep in touch," she promised before she gave one last long look at her son who was still peering at her over the pen. With another heavy sigh she slowly walked out the door.

* * *

Aron was a nondescript world that contained mostly prairie grass and forest. It reminded Jan of Dantooine though her time on that planet had been brief, merely a touchdown for fuel many years ago.

"There is a small settlement down there," Cole said from beside her while he looked at the screen, "Why didn't they report about the base? It isn't that far away."

"Easy, the town officials are being paid to keep their mouths shut."

"Are we going to land in town?"

Jan shook her head. "They might recognize the _Claw_. We'll land behind one of the hills nearby and keep ourselves down low so we aren't detected."

"No charging in with guns blazing?"

She looked over at the nineteen year old boy. "I'll tell you what, you can go in there gun's blazing then I can ship your body back to Yavin IV."

"I was only kidding."

Jan smiled and shook her head. "I can't always tell with you, kid."

The _Raven's Claw_ touched down behind a hill the stood next to the Imperial base. It was only two stories, so slightly bigger than the last one, but it looked half-way deserted. "Looks like they're packing up," Jan said.

"What does that mean?"

"They're abandoning the base. That's good; it might make this mission just a little bit easier."

"Seriously."

"No."

Jan left the cockpit with Cole in tow. Angel was busy in the corridor checking his 'twin girls' for any glitches before slipping them into their holsters. "Still won't let me borrow one those?" Jan teased, already knowing the answer.

"Not today, She-cat."

"I'll get my gear and then we can go," she told them. She hurried to her room and found her tool belt and pistols. She slipped a couple of med-packs into her vest pocket just in case. She also, reluctantly, took out Morgan's picture. If she was captured she didn't want the Imps to find out about her son.

Jan finished prepping and joined her comrades at the exit hatch. "You both ready?"

"Yep," Angel replied,

"Then lets go."

Jan led the way with Angel and Cole flanking her on both sides. It felt nice to have two people watching her back. She felt safer, more secure in success. However, three people also meant it would be hard to keep a low profile. They were guaranteed to get into a heavy fire.

"I take it we ain't gonna sneak in from the roof," Angel said.

"No, see if you can find a ventilation shaft or—if we must—a garbage chute."

"If we're down to the last one I'm just going to knock on the front door," Cole replied, grimacing at the idea of swimming through garbage.

Jan let out a soft laugh. She took out the binocs to scan the base. "I see a ventilation shaft so you're safe, Cole."

"Thank you, hard to impress the ladies when you smell like a gizka."

Angel slapped the Jedi on the shoulder while he laughed. Jan cut him off by signaling them to be silent. There were two stormtroopers protecting the base. "Do you have that sniper rifle?" she whispered.

"I surely do." Angel reached behind him and pulled out what seemed like a lump of metal. But he slowly unfolded the muzzle and then the handle until it resembled a very nice looking rifle.

"Cool," Cole said, "Where did you get that?"

"I made it."

"I really should go to your workshop sometime," Jan said as Angel readied his weapon.

He carefully locked one of the trooper's head into the crosshairs then fired. He was down in an instant. The second trooper scanned the horizon for his comrade's killer but soon he took a shot straight through his helmet.

"Let's get to it," Angel said as he refolded his rifle and then slung it onto his back.

Jan put away her binocs and led the way again. They hurried to the ventilation shaft and Jan already had her fusion cutter reader. She sliced through the grate's seal and Angel lifted it free. She poked her head in but all she could see was black.

"No fan," she said, "Either it's offline or this is some sort of drain."

"A drain for what?" Cole wanted to know, obviously worried about sewage.

"Could be to drain water from their fuel tanks to keep their power supply running without a hitch," Jan said.

"I like that better than the sewer." Cole gestured towards the tunnel, "Ladies first."

"Then I'll follow you."

The Jedi glowered at her. "Now that's just insulting."

"Perhaps, but you're still going first."

Cole grumbled to himself as he climbed inside, "Crazy woman with a tight ass."

"I heard that last part," she told him with a warning tone in her voice. Jan shook her head at the boy before crawling inside. "Do you think you'll be able to fit, Angel?"

"It'll be tight, but I'll be fine."

Jan was on her hands and knees, praying she wouldn't touch some soft and squishy. She could only see Cole's shoes up ahead, everything else was dark. "Ow!" she heard Angel yell followed by some swear words in Twi'leki.

"You alright?" she asked him.

"Knocked my darn head on the ceilin'."

"Suddenly I'm glad I'm not so big," Cole said from in front of her, "Height wise that is. I'm plenty big where it counts."

Jan was close enough to the kid to smack him in his ankle tendon with her fist. "Ow! What'd you do that for?"

"Just for kicks."

Angel let out another grunt of pain. "Banged my head again," he muttered, clearly frustrated with his size at the moment.

"I see the way out," Cole said, "Jan, give me your fusion cutter."

The space was tight so in order to reach over and give it to him, Jan had to put one hand on his rear to give herself enough of a lift to slip it to him. "Aw, Jan, I didn't know you felt that way," he teased.

"Do you want me to break your nose?"

"Can't hear you; too busy cutting away the grate." It was a worthless comment as the cutter made very little noise.

They heard Cole grunt with a little effort and then they saw some light up ahead. Cole jumped down to the ground. Jan held her breath, waiting to see if there would be any blaster fire. "It's all clear," the Jedi said.

Jan crawled the rest of the way out and leapt to the ground. Now back on two feet, she walked over and kicked Cole in the shin. "That's what you get for making me put my hand on your ass."

"It wasn't my fault," he muttered while rubbing his bruised leg.

Angel slithered his way out of the tunnel and fell down onto the floor. Jan rushed over to her friend. "Are you alright?"

"Can we find a bigger tunnel next time?" he asked.

Jan laughed and grabbed his arm to help him back onto his feet. "Are you ready, big guy?"

"Just give me a minute to catch my breath," he said, "I don't like itty bitty spaces like that one."

"Where are we and why is it so cold?" Cole wanted to know.

Jan looked around to see that there were four giant tanks filled with a plasma like fluid. "It's some sort of fuel coolant," she said, "The vent we went through will allow the excess cool air out. It looks like you removed the cover that keeps it closed."

"Does mean we might be in trouble?"

"Probably so lets move."

Now fully recovered, Angel pulled out his 'twins' to show that he was ready for action. Cole kept one hand on his lightsaber but knew better than to ignite it yet. Jan had her own blaster out and she took the lead.

"So what's the plan of action?" Angel asked her as they made their way to the door, "Are we goin' to Control again."

Jan shook her head. "They're moving on which means they'll dump all of their transmissions. We need to find the archives. Hopefully they haven't erased all of their files yet."

"How do we get there?" Cole asked.

"I need to find a console. I can hack into the network and bring up the base's schematics."

"You never cease to amaze me, Jan," Cole said with his signature grin.

She shook her head at him and rolled her eyes. He was a sweet kid when he wanted to be which was rarely enough. Jan stopped on the side of the door with Cole coming up to press up against the wall beside her. Angel took the spot on the opposite side of the door when the control panel was. Jan gave him a nod and he punched the button to open the door.

Jan went out first, scanning both ends of the hallway and coming up empty. She gestured for them to follow her into the corridor. "Where do we go from here?" Cole wanted to know.

"Let's find the crews quarters," she replied, "they'll have consoles available for me to hack into.

"And how are we going to find those?"

"Blind luck."

"Well at least you have a plan," Cole replied, clearly amused by her.

"They'll be on this level," Angel commented, "So it might not be that hard."

"We're near the power room so I suggest we head right," Jan said, "There's more area to cover."

She continued to lead the way with Angel taking the rear, looking over his shoulder frequently to make sure they weren't being followed. Up ahead the door to what could have been a supply room opened and an officer stepped out. He was shocked at first when he saw them but he quickly pulled out his. Jan shot him before he had a chance to fire.

"Hopefully no one heard that, but let's pick up the base," she said.

They kept going but quicker now. There was what appeared to be a lab before them with glass windows. Jan crouched down on her hands in knees to keep from being seen. "What are we doing this for?" Cole whispered.

"Rule one as an operative: avoid being seen as much as possible even if you feel like an idiot."

"What's rule number two?"

"Don't get yourself killed."

She made it past the windows and stood up again with her blaster back in her hand. They had to turn the corner so she peeked around. Two Imps were having a conversation.

"…you think we'll be assigned to a real base like the one on Yilsong?"

"Doubt it, but even if we did you wouldn't be able to meet a woman. Rumor is we're getting ready to strike."

Jan was anxious to learn more except at that moment Cole chose to sneeze. She actually took the time to roll her eyes before she revealed herself to the stormtroopers. Bolts whizzed past her head as she fired back at them Angel was blasting away at them with his 'twins' and within seconds the troopers were down.

"Someone surely heard that," Angel stated the obvious.

"Now we really have to hurry," Jan said

Someone fired a shot behind them. She looked over her shoulder and saw two more stormtroopers. "I'll take care of them," Cole said. He activated his lightsaber and deflected their shots as he ran. He spun around with his saber, taking them both down with one swing.

"Good work, kid," Jan said, "Keep that up and I may forgive you for sneezing."

Now they broke into a run. "We must be getting close if we're running into Imperials," Jan said to them.

They had reached a long line of doors which attested to her logic. Jan picked out two rooms and pointed to them with her blaster while saying, "Eenie, meenie, miney, moe."

"Nice concept," Cole commented.

"We don't have a key-card," Angel said.

Jan holstered her blaster and pulled out a pick. She pried the lock away from the panel to expose the wiring. She plucked two wires free and forced them connect. The door slid open and a stormtrooper finishing suiting up stared at them in shock. Angel punched him square in the face, knocking him unconscious.

"Why didn't you kill him?" Cole wanted to know.

"Rule three: only kill when threatened," Jan said just before she took her seat at the console. The screen popped up demanding for a password. She slipped a computer spike into the driver to grant her access. She went through the primary files and pulled up the base schematics.

"It looks like the archives are on the top level, on the same corridor as Control but to the far left."

"It ain't gonna be easy to get there," Angel said.

"I have an idea," Cole brought forth.

"Uh oh," Jan said with a grimace.

"I was thinking that Angel and I can take the lift up to the second level while you take the stairs. We can distract the Imperials while you get the data. Then you can go back out the way we came, get the _Claw_ and pick us up on the roof."

Jan stared back at him with a little frown. "That's not half bad. It might just work."

"I agree," Angel said.

"Okay then, lets get started," Jan replied, "You two be careful."

"Back at'cha," Cole said with a grin.

Jan gave them both a nod before leaving the crew's quarters. Angel and Cole left too but they headed in the opposite direction. Jan followed their original route; traipsing past the bodies of the troopers they had no choice but to leave in the open. She went past the room they had come through and found the emergency stairwell at the end of the corridor.

Once she disconnected the alarm, Jan raced up the stairs. She could already hear blaster fire but she refused to let herself worry over her friends. She opened the door and saw three troopers heading towards the fight. They turned around and started shooting at her. Jan ducked back inside but kept the door open.

She peeked out from the doorway and fired, taking down one trooper. One of them fired back but she ducked back inside before it could hit her. Jan revealed herself again to let out two quick shots, but again she only got one. This time she was a little slower and the remaining trooper fired. The bolt skimmed past her head, turning her ear red and singeing some of her hair.

Quickly, Jan let out several bolts, two of them missed but three struck home. "That was close," she said to herself, her ear stinging from the heat.

Thankfully, the archives were just ahead of her. Inside was a huge library of various data-files, some filled with supply reports, account records and other various odds and ends. "This is going to take a while," Jan said before getting to work.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

"Crap, it looks like the entire base showed up here," Cole said to Angel as he deflected as many as the bolts away from him and his comrade.

"We need to keep them from the archives," Angel said, "It don't matter how many there are, we need to keep them away from Jan."

There were about six troopers on one side of them and two on the other. Cole was busy deflecting the bolts from the six while Angel shot down the other two. The young Jedi walked slowly towards them while at the same time protecting himself and his friend. Once he was close enough, he went to work slashing and stabbing at them with his lightsaber.

A seventh stormtrooper came down the corridor, but Cole pushed out his hand to freeze the trooper where he stood. Angel saw the frozen Imperial and shot him while Cole finished off the last trooper with his lightsaber.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Jan was busy scanning through the console in the archives, trying to find the right data-file. It was a long list of files that was very tedious work and she was not known for her patience. Finally, the file popped up on the screen. "Yes!" she cheered.

She left her chair and leafed through the stacks of files until she found the right one. She put the file into the console so its data would appear on screen. Then she pulled out her data-chip and inserted it into the console.

The data was downloading when she heard a voice order, "Stand up."

Jan shook her head at the inconvenience, and then left her chair with her hands raised above her head.

"Step away from the console."

She did as she was ordered and was able to see it was an Imperial officer in a brown uniform who had found her. "You're the woman we've been ordered to find," he said.

That news struck Jan by surprise. Why did they want to find her?

The Imp smiled at his luck. "Lord Ganis will be pleased that I have found you."

Ah yes, arrogance, the perfect weapon to use when one is being held hostage. "Perhaps you will receive a commendation," Jan said, slowly inching towards the stack of data-files.

"True, and considering that your precious New Republic will soon lie in ashes; that will mean a lot when the Empire has been rebuilt."

"I'm sure you're right," she replied, almost at the stack, "Perhaps you'll get a promotion."

The Imperial grinned at that idea. "Admiral Unis."

"How about dead Unis?" Jan suggested. Unis gave her a quizzical look just before she pushed the stack with all of her might. It fell over, knocking into the one in front of it. That one fell into another stack and then the other stack crashed down on top of the Imperial.

Jan quickly returned to the console and removed the data-chip. Unis's blood was seeping down onto the floor but she had seen more disgusting things in her life. She paid no mind to the dead Imperial, just climbed over the fallen shelves and raced towards the staircase.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Angel and Cole had found the control room and run into more Imperials. Cole used the Force to blow out the glass in the room, circling it around the Imperials. The officers were cut up badly but the stormtroopers felt nothing due to their heavy armor.

"Angel, Cole," Jan's voice filled their comms, "I've got the data and I am leaving the base now."

"You better hurry, She-cat," Angel said, "We're running into a lot of resistance."

"Let's head towards the roof," Cole said. Angel nodded and continued to blast away at the troopers while Cole kept the bolts from touching them.

There was no lift to the roof. They would have to take the stairs which was on the other side of the corridor beside the lift. Cole used the Force to make a giant gust of wind that knocked down the Imperials, giving them time to get a head start. However, oddly enough they didn't follow.

Cole had a feeling that something was wrong, but he didn't voice this to Angel. There wasn't time to ponder over this. Angel reached the stairs just as the lift doors opened.

There was a man inside dressed completely in black. His black hood was pulled up to where it was difficult to see his face. He looked up at them with yellow colored eyes; menacing eyes that made Cole shiver inside. He flicked on a bright red lightsaber.

"Go!" Cole told Angel, "I'll handle him."

The Sith raised his lightsaber and clashed it against Cole's blue saber. Angel stood by the door to the stairway, watching as Cole pulled his lightsaber away and parried it against the Sith's. "Go Angel, I'll meet you on the roof."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Jan raced down the hill as fast as she could once she saw the gleam of the _Raven's Claw_ against the prairie grass. She unlocked it and raced inside to the cockpit.

"Angel, Cole, I'm firing up the _Claw_ now."

There was a bit of static before Angel's voice called out. "Get here quick, She-cat, Cole's fighting with a Sith."

Jan let out a Twi'leki curse and pulled on the levers to lift the _Claw_ off of the ground.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Cole had never been more glad that he had listened to Luke Skywalker when it came to fighting with a lightsaber. He had been instructed to focus on his next move while at the same time concentrating on the enemy's. Put all emotion into the back of his mind for that would only hinder his progress.

The Sith was older than Cole, but they appeared to be on the same level of skill. He tried to put more power into his blows, focusing primarily on slashing at Cole's limbs. Meanwhile, Cole focused on his defense. He neatly blocked the blows and sought an opening to finish this duel.

A sudden glowing in the Sith's hands went unnoticed by Cole, a mistake. Bolts of blue lightening shot out of his hand and crackled against Cole's skin. He was shoved backwards hard against the wall which added deeper to his pain.

Now angry, Cole fueled his blows with his rage. He had been avoiding Imperials and Sith all of his life. This fight would be the final start to his revenge.

Wait, revenge? No, he couldn't seek that out. Revenge wasn't supposed to be in the life of a Jedi, justice and peace were what they served. His father had known that.

Cole forced the pain and anger into the back of his mind, returning to simply parrying away at the Sith. His adversary was displeased by Cole's lack of anger which led to a great deal of impatience. He tried to conjure up the lightening again, but this time Cole was waiting for him. He struck with his saber, chopping off the Sith's hand.

The shock and pain from the loss of his limb have Cole the opening he needed. He stabbed the Sith straight in the heart. He let out a grunt from the pain and then sank down to the ground.

Sweaty and tender from the battle, Cole forced himself to ignore his fatigue and race up the stairway to the roof. Angel was waiting for him up top and the _Raven's Claw_ was descending towards them.

"Perfect timing, kid," Angel commented, "You okay?"

"I'll be fine, let's blow this joint."

Jan touched down on the base, but didn't turn off the engines. She lowered the small ramp to allow Cole and Angel on board. "We have to hurry," she told them, "They're charging up that pulse cannon."

Cole collapsed onto one of the chairs in the galley while Angel joined Jan in the cockpit. She pulled the _Claw_ up into the air and steered it around to head up towards the sky. A blast from the cannon cracked like thunder. The ship shook when the green bolt struck the hole.

"Sithspit!" Jan shouted.

Another shot was fired but she managed to maneuver the _Claw_ around it. "Cole, get up on the turret and take out the cannon!"

Another blast connected with the _Raven's Claw_ hull. "They're goin' to tear us apart," Angel said.

"They're firing too fast," Jan explained, "I can't get enough maneuverability."

A series of shots was fired from the _Claw's_ turrets. Jan focused on flying while Angel watched Cole's progress on the cannon. The cannon let out another burst and struck a spot by the _Claw's_ engines.

"Blast you, Cole, hurry it up!" Jan shouted at him.

More shots were fired from the turret and this time the cannon exploded into a burst of orange and yellow flames. "Alright," Cole gasped into his comm, "let's get off this rock."

"Can't do that," Jan said.

"Why the hell not?"

"That last blast hit the hyperdrive unit. We're leaking, badly. I can't get us into space in this condition. Our only option is to land in the settlement and make the repairs."

"But the Imperials—!"

"I know that," she snapped back, "But we don't have a choice." Jan shut off her comm, too frustrated to listen to Cole. "Mon Mothma better double my pay after this."

* * *

Two hours after the infiltration, Jan was up on top of the _Claw_ desperately trying to replace the hyperdrive motivator. It had cost a pretty penny to buy the replacement and now the spirit of her former ship, the _Moldy Crow_, seemed to have possessed the _Claw_ because now she was having trouble refitting it.

Cole was up with her patching up the holes in the outer hull. "Cole, hand me that hydrospanner," she instructed him while she was bent over inspecting the wiring.

The young Jedi found the tool but stopped to smirk over the fabulous view Jan was giving him. "Stop staring at my ass and hand me the hydrospanner," she hissed at him without looking up from her work.

Cole handed her the tool. "You're going to kick the crap out of me later aren't you?"

"Yep."

"Then it's a good thing I'm done. Distance might improve your mood."

"Don't count on it," she replied, still buried elbow deep in her work. She didn't have a jumpsuit so she had already gotten grease on her clothes. She had scratched her arm on sharp edge of the busted motivator which had caused a long, semi-deep scratch that she didn't have time to worry over.

"Jan, we've got company!" Cole called to her.

She took the time to look over and see a squad of stormtroopers headed towards them "Sithspit," she muttered to herself and then called to her friends, "Hold them off! I'm almost done here!"

Angel was blasting away with his 'twins' and she heard Cole's lightsaber hiss into life. Every fiber of her being wanted to jump down there in help but there just wasn't time. Her mechanical skills were needed right now not her great aim.

A blaster shot struck the hull by her feet. Fantastic, now they were firing at her. Jan put down her tool and took out her blaster. Only one trooper was nearby so she shot him three times in the chest before getting back to work.

"What are you doing here?" Jan heard Cole ask someone. It was odd to hear him say that considering there wasn't anyone here that didn't need to be, but she didn't have any time to dwell on it.

Jan ducked down to avoid the blaster fire to get to her toolbox. She dropped her hydrospanner inside and pulled out her fusion wrench. She went back to the new motivator and connected the wires necessary to make it run. She fit it in place and did a temporary patch job. When they were in safer territory, she would go back and finish the job more thoroughly, but for now that would have to do.

"I'm done!" she yelled down to them. A red bolt whizzed past her face. The sudden shock made her slip and she fell onto her stomach. Jan slid down the hull, grasping at something to stop her descent but there was nothing to hold on to.

It was doubtful that she would die when she hit the ground, seriously injured, but not dead. Still that prospect was not what Jan wanted. She managed to reach out her hand and grab onto the wing. This kept her from falling but now she was dangling above the ground. _How are you going to get out of this one?_ she asked herself.

"Jan, let go!" she heard someone yell but there wasn't enough time to identify who it was. It was crazy, but she trusted her friends completely so she shut her eyes and dropped.

For several seconds she felt nothing but the air whooshing around her. Then she hit someone soft. He caught her and rocked back onto his heels but didn't fall. At that moment there was the sharp cry of a sonic blast coming from towards them so her rescuer shoved her to the ground. He covered her with his own body as the giant blue, circular blast flew over them and landed harmlessly against the docking bay wall.

"Jan Ors, what have you gotten yourself into?" her savior growled into her ear.

Jan lay there frozen in complete shock. She recalled Cole's question from earlier, asking someone what they were doing here. Now she asked the same question in her mind. _What is he doing here?_

Kyle Katarn, her former friend and partner, the man who had abandoned her after he said her loved her, the father of her child, pulled her up to her feet while she was still hardly able to breathe.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

Jan was still staring at him in open shock. Was this another fluke meeting? It had to be. Kyle had already proven that he had no intentions of being with her so this had to just be a coincidence. Luke had said that he believed that Kyle was trying to take out lingering Sith from the destruction of the Empire. Was that why he was here?

"Jan, answer me!" Kyle demanded, "Are you alright?"

She gave him a jerky nod. A shot from a blaster forced Jan to recover immediately from her shock and focus on the job at hand. Kyle had his lightsaber out in an instant and helped to deflect blows. Jan crouched down at his feet, firing at the stormtroopers while he protected her.

Jan saw some troopers firing at Cole from the other side of the wing she was close to. Angel was already assisting Kyle, so she left him and fired at the three troopers by the young Jedi.

One of Cole's deflected blasts struck a trooper, dropping it down to two. Jan fired straight through the helmet of one and then Cole stabbed through the other's armor. The sound of blaster fire had died completely. All that lingered from their battle was smoke and dead troopers.

Cole was clutching at his right bicep with his left hand. "Were you hit?" she asked.

"Grazed, nothing serious."

She let the adrenaline of the fight lessen a little before she turned her focus back on the man who had just joined their party. Kyle was talking to Angel, perhaps asking if he had been wounded. Jan walked over to him with a determined look in her eyes.

Cole followed her now anxious to see what she was going to do. Kyle saw her coming and turned around to greet her. "Hey Jan," he said, but that was all he got out before her fist slammed into the side of his face.

"Ooh," Cole let out a cheerful groan, "That had to hurt." Angel joined Cole in watching the fight.

Kyle had been surprised by Jan's blow but he hadn't fallen down like she wanted. She punched at him again but this time he was expecting it. He moved out of the way, grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. It was a strong grip, but not strong enough to hurt her, just to restrain her.

"Jan—." He didn't get to finish because her elbow dug into his gut, causing him to double over. Now free, Jan locked her fingers together then slammed her joined forearms into his back. Kyle fell to the ground hard.

"Fifty credits says she knocks him out cold," Cole bet to Angel.

Angel shook his head. "She don't really want to hurt him, just make him a little bruised."

"I'll take that bet."

Jan was far from finished with Kyle. She turned him over with her boot, but Kyle had only been pretending serous pain. He grabbed her ankle with both hands and flipped her down onto her back. He didn't let go of her ankle. Instead he dragged her over so he could stare down at her.

"Now Jan—." She put her knees up under his chest and flew him backwards so he landed onto his back.

"Yeow!" Cole said, "Way to go, Jan!"

Jan didn't pay any attention to her fan. Instead she climbed back onto her feet and walked over to Kyle. She grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt to drag him back up for some more revenge. However, Kyle hooked one of his legs around her ankles and forced back onto the ground. Before she could get up, he straddled her abdomen and grabbed both of her wrists and pinned them both to the ground.

Jan was outraged at his flawless method of ending their squabble. She kicked and tried desperately to pull her wrists free, but Kyle's iron grip wouldn't allow it. "Are you done yet?" he inquired.

"Not even close," she bit out.

"Seems to me that you're stuck."

"I'll figure something out," she warned him while still fighting to break free.

"Jan, stop it!" he ordered her, tightening his grip, but still not enough to cause her pain. He didn't want to hurt her, meanwhile she wanted to kill him.

Jan was losing energy from her violent struggle. Her breaths were coming out in deep gasps and her efforts weren't nearly as hard. "Give it up," Kyle told her.

She was still trying to break free but the endeavor was minimal now. "Okay, that's good enough," he decided, "Obviously you are not that happy to see me."

"That's an understatement," she hissed.

"I expected you to be mad but the violence threw me off guard."

"Expect more of it."

"Jan, I didn't come here to fight with you," he said.

"Then what did you come here for?" she asked, "the night life?"

"I've been tracking you for days now."

"Why the hell would you do that?" Jan demanded.

"It's the Sith, Jan," he said to her softly, "The Sith have marked you for death."

The news struck Jan by surprise. "What do the Sith want me for?"

"I was hoping you could tell me."

"Well I haven't done anything to them…lately." Jan stopped fighting him and turned her head so she wasn't looking into his eyes. "Back at the base, one of the Imperials said that a Lord Ganis has ordered people to find me."

Kyle nodded. "I've heard of Ganis."

"We believe he's working with Castin Mohc," she told him.

He looked back at her with surprise. "Mohc as in—."

Jan nodded. "He's his son."

"Damn, we're in trouble," he said with a shake of his head. Kyle looked back into her eyes. He let go of one of her wrists so he could twirl a loose strand of her hair around his finger. "We need to figure this out. I found you because I want to come with you…to protect you."

"And if I say no?"

Kyle smiled down at her, a smile that always took her breath away. "I'm not taking no for an answer."

Those words brought her back to the night a year and a half ago. They also reminded her of Morgan and how she so desperately needed to protect him. She was angry with Kyle, but they had always worked well together. There was no doubt in her mind that together they could figure this out and get the job done. However, there was no way she was going to let him find out about her son. He could abandon her, but to have him leave his own child…Morgan was better off without him.

"Fine," she said, "You can come with us."

"I'm eternally grateful," he teased, hoping for a smile. She refused to give him what he wanted. Kyle didn't say anything but he did let her go.

"Thank you," Jan said just before she delivered him a hard kick in the shin. Kyle let out a grunt of pain and clutched the injured area while she walked away from him.

Cole let out a grumble of discontentment while Angel laughed and held out his hand. Cole had just put the fifty credit chip into Angel's hand when Jan swiped it up. They both looked at her in shock. "If you're going to bet on me then I'm going to collect," she said.

Kyle shook his head at her and watched her walk onboard the _Claw_. This was going to be a fun trip.

* * *

"Ah, Miss Ors, it is good to hear from you," Mindy said when she answered the holograph projector.

Jan was in the cockpit of the _Raven's Claw_, locked inside actually so Kyle wouldn't find out about what she was doing. She smiled at her part-time nanny. "It's good to see you, Mindy, how's Morgan doing?"

"Oh he's a little angel. He's asleep right now, but I can wake him up if you would like."

It was a tempting offer but Jan shook her head. "No, that's alright. I just wanted to make sure everything was fine. Did he eat his solids?"

Mindy laughed. "It took a bit of prodding, but I finally got him to eat."

"That's a relief."

"When are you coming home?"

Jan let out a long sigh. "Hopefully soon. We got into some heavy fire so we're docked at Cashlaan Station for fuel and repairs. I left Mon Mothma a message dealing with some…updates on our mission. This might change some things."

"Oh," Mindy said, "Well do hurry home. I can tell that Morgan misses you."

Jan's heart ached when she heard that. "I miss him too." She almost changed her mind and asked Mindy to wake up Morgan. However, she decided to let her precious baby boy sleep. "I'll contact you if anything changes," Jan said.

"Goodbye then, Miss Ors."

"Goodbye Mindy."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

A shadow watched Mindy as she busied herself cleaning her dinner from the kitchen. It only paid attention to her for a few moments before silently moving through the living room and then slipping under the door to the nursery.

The baby's crib was situated in the corner of the room. The dark shadow that looked like a man, followed the wall until it stood before the crib. The baby was asleep, cuddling up to a stuffed bantha toy. He was sucking his thumb in his sleep and occasionally let out a soft, little sigh.

Ors had called the baby Morgan, Katarn's father's name. Verification would be needed but it seemed likely that the shadow was staring down at the son of Kyle Katarn.

Morgan opened his brown eyes and stared at the shadow. For a moment nothing happened. The baby just gazed at the figure as if calculating what it was. The child was very much aware; obviously the Force inherited from his father flowed strongly through his spirit.

Finally he let out a high pitched wail. The shadow melted beneath the crib and listened as the nanny came running. "Morgan, sweetheart, it's alright. Are you hungry?"

She scooped up the crying infant. Morgan peeped over her shoulder at the shadow, watching it carefully. Once they were out of the room, the shadow returned to its full height. Ah, the child would be an excellent addition to the plan. Not only could a threat against him bring his parents to their knees, but he could be a strong asset when he was grown.

Satisfied with what it had discovered, the shadow faded from the wall and out of existence.

* * *

A/N: What is the strange shadow man? Will Jan ever tell Kyle about their son? You'll have to wait and find out. Yes we have too much power. Please review, we love them.


	5. Chapter 4: Shadow of Death

Disclaimer: We are not George Lucas, hence we do not own any of this.

A/N Tinuviel Undomiel: This chap helps to introduce Ganis a little more as well as reveals on what Jan plans on doing when it comes to Kyle and the son he doesn't know about. Plus, are her feelings for Kyle really gone? Go on and read to find out.

A/N Nerwen Aldarion: Ah Ganis's awesome power, that was our creation so you won't find it in the Star Wars universe, it came from my ingenious mind so I hope you like it

**shanesnest:** Our fellow Jedi Knight fan, we hope you will like this chapter. It shows more of Jan's anger to Kyle, but also some insight into what her true feelings for him are. When will you post the second chapter, we're dying here!

**Lord of Anonymous:** Still impatiently waiting for your KOTOR story. You are truly a fanfiction writer in training, and we are sure you will be very successful.

Note: We will be going out of town for all of next week to a place with no internet access so no updates until Friday night a the earliest, however we WILL be bringing our computers so we will continue writing the story so you can expect an update as soon as we get back.

* * *

Chapter 4: Shadow of Death

Cashlaan Station orbited the gaseous planet Dreof. It was primarily a trade and fuel stop for ships on a regular trade route. Jan had chosen to go there to finish patching up the _Claw_ but also so they could speak to Mon Mothma about the developments to their mission.

The moment she appeared on the projector, Mon Mothma smiled at Kyle. "Kyle, it's good to see you again."

"Likewise," Kyle replied also grinning.

"Your message to me was unclear," she said, getting straight to business, "You have been pursuing Sith and now Jan is in some sort of trouble."

"You're making it sound like it's my fault," Jan commented in an angry tone. She had been in a terrible mood since Kyle had come onboard.

"What is going on exactly?" Mon Mothma asked.

"This Sith Lord, Ganis, has issued an order for Jan's death," Kyle explained, "I've been looking for her for a while now and caught up with her on Aron."

"Do we know why the Sith want to kill Jan?"

Kyle was going to answer but Jan stepped in before he could. "No, we don't."

"Do you have a plan of action?"

"I think we should return to Coruscant and decide where to go from there," Jan replied. In Coruscant she could see her son and it would make avoiding Kyle much easier.

"I ain't sure if that's a good idea," Angel spoke up now.

"Why do you think that?" Mon Mothma asked.

"Frankly, ma'am, if the Sith are after She-cat here then they'll follow her to Coruscant. Not only could they kill her, but it would be a prime attack spot for the Senate."

"An excellent point," Mon Mothma replied.

Jan shook her head. "I don't think the Sith have the numbers to go that far."

"We don't know what their numbers are, Jan," Kyle told her.

She ignored her former partner, choosing to focus on Mon Mothma instead. "We haven't seen many and all of the bases we've found are small. Our military forces are too strong for them to try a headlong attack."

"All valid points, Jan, but I'm finding Angel's logic more compelling."

"I want to go home," Jan pleaded, "I have responsibilities."

The holographic image of Mon Mothma copied her stare completely as she gazed at Jan. "That is exactly my thought. Are you willing to risk the lives of others with this death mark on your head?"

Jan was desperate to see her son, but Angel had been right to call her a 'momma bear'. She would do anything to keep Morgan safe, even if it meant staying away from him. Jan nodded at last. "We'll stay on Falsir. It's close to here and populated enough to where we won't stand out."

"I think that's a wise decision," Mon Mothma said. "I'll have my people dig into this and see if we can figure out what is going on. When we learn something new you will be the first to know."

"We should probably move every few days," Kyle brought up, "it'll be harder for them to track us."

"You would know," Jan muttered to herself. He wasn't sure if she meant for him to hear or not, but it did hurt a little.

"Keep me informed on your progress," Mon Mothma said, "I'll make sure everything is alright at home." She was looking over at Jan when she said that.

"Thank you," Jan replied.

"We'll be in touch," Mon Mothma said before blinking out.

Cole smiled once she was gone. "Aside from the Sith and nasty Imperials, it sure is nice to be on vacation from the Academy."

"You find the silver lining in everything, don't you?" Kyle said to him.

"Why focus on the bad stuff in life when the good stuff is more fun, that's my motto," Cole told him.

"Does suit you, kid," Angel agreed.

The three men were laughing but Jan was not in so jovial a mood. Not only was she stuck with Kyle, but she wouldn't be able to see her son until this whole mess was over with. She had never been separated for more than few days ever since his birth. She had even refused to hire a full time nanny because _she_ wanted to be his mother and not a hired woman. Mindy would take excellent care of Morgan, but it still felt like she was losing important moments with her child.

"I'm going back to the ship," she announced to them. Turning in early seemed like a good idea after a terrible day like this.

"Jan, wait a sec," Cole called to her after she left the transmission room. "Are you alright?"

"Just tired."

"Me and Angel were wonder, were you going to tell Kyle that—?"

"No."

Cole blinked at her immediate answer. "But don't you think that he—?"

"No."

"Is no all you can say right now?"

"Of course not," Jan replied, "it's just the best answer."

"So you're really not going to tell him."

Jan shook her head. "No."

Cole nodded at her. "Good talk, Jan."

* * *

Kyle knew that Jan wanted to avoid him at all cost but the _Raven's Claw_ wasn't that large of a ship so he had expected to bump into her more often than she would have liked but Kyle underestimated Jan's stubbornness as well as her anger towards him. Since returning to the ship the door to her room had been closed and locked tight and Jan had yet to emerge.

He could wait until she snuck out for a meal and corner her than but patience wasn't always one of his virtues and he was anxious to speak with her, "Come on Jan," he said to the closed door, "I just want to talk."

"I'm sorry I can't hear you," Jan replied her voice muffled by the door.

He rolled his eyes _great now I'm reduced to a grade school kid_, "Just open the door Jan!"

"Sure Kyle," she said icily, "right after you drop dead."

"I'd have expected a better insult from you Jan," Kyle remarked sarcastically, now purposefully trying to irk the woman.

"I'm dumbing it down for you," she shot back.

"There you go, that's better" Kyle exclaimed with mocking cheerfulness, at least her sense of humor was still the same.

"Goodbye Kyle," she said pointedly but Kyle still didn't move from his stance by the door.

"Leave her alone Rogue," Angel said from the small table in the commons area. Kyle turned to look at the big man after he realized that he was talking to him.

_Rogue?_ Kyle thought mulling over the nickname; _I guess it's better than kid or sport._ "I just want to talk to her," he replied.

"She don't want to talk," Angel explained, "She just wants to be mad, let her have a good hate and she'll come around."

"She never came around to me," Cole complained with a mischievous wink in his eye.

"That's 'cause you annoy her kid."

Kyle took a seat across from Angel, "You know her pretty well."

"Not as well as you."

"Sometimes I wonder," Kyle muttered glancing at the closed door before turning back to the other two guys, "There are days when I feel like she's a stranger to me."

Cole laughed, "That's not Jan, that's just women in general!"

"Yeah but you don't stick around with one woman," Kyle pointed out, "I've known Jan for years."

"She changed since you left," Angel explained, "both times."

"What happened to her now?" Kyle asked, worried that maybe she started going a little mad again, he hadn't seen any notices though.

Angel shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Well…She-cat is…a lot happened but you'll have to ask her."

"Well she's not speaking to me much right now."

"Can't blame her," Cole said softly but Kyle heard him.

"Keep your mouth shut kid," Angel glared at the boy, Cole's eyes widened slightly and his quickly looked down at the table.

Kyle looked from one man to the next, sizing up both men before speaking, "You're on her side aren't you?"

"Yep," Angel replied simply.

"Then why are you talking to me?"

"I got no problem with you," he explained, "but she put her trust in me and I don't mean to betray it, not even to you."

Kyle couldn't hide his disappointment, he respected the big man's loyalty and wouldn't dare press to betray his trust, but at this moment in time Kyle felt like he didn't have a friend in the world and the one person he wanted wasn't speaking to him.

Angel leaned forward across the table, "I'll give you some advice for free Rogue, keep fightin'," he explained, "She-cat's got full body armor on but you break through it…I think you're the only one who can."

"Aw man," Cole sighed, "I was hoping that would be me."

Kyle barely noticed the younger man's words; he was looking thoughtfully at Angel and reflecting over what the older man had said. What did Angel know that he didn't? He was determined to find out and if there was a chance that he could set things right with Jan, well that was his number one goal.

Angel believed it was possible and if that was the case, well then Kyle could begin to hope again.

* * *

Jan purposely got up extremely early in hopes that Kyle wasn't up yet. When she passed the crew's bunks she could hear two sets of snoring, though which two of the three men on her ship she couldn't guess at. She carefully snuck down the hall and listened at the sound of somebody eating their breakfast in the galley.

She was just about to peek around the corner when a very welcome voice called out, "It's just me, She-cat."

Jan let out a sigh of a relief and walked into the galley. She was still in her bed clothes but they weren't revealing (as if she'd be caught dead in one of lacey bits of nothings) she didn't mind if Angel saw her. "Good morning, Angel," she greeted him.

"Mornin', She-cat."

Jan rifled through the cabinets until she found a muja muffin. It wasn't her usual breakfast but she wasn't that hungry. No at that moment she was confused. When she was around Kyle she was furious, but when she was away from him and knowing he was just a wall away…why couldn't hate be permanent? It was easier to hate than to love sometimes.

"That don't look much like breakfast," Angel commented while eyeing her muffin like it was a hidden explosive.

"I craved them when I was pregnant and I'm not really hungry this morning."

"Uh huh."

Jan frowned at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothin' She-cat, just know you're upset is all," Angel replied.

She had her muffin and a cup of juice but all she did was stare at her breakfast. She had barely slept the night before and now she didn't even want to eat. Kyle was screwing up her entire life. "Jedi bastard," she mumbled under her breath.

Angel chuckled. "He can't hear you right now."

"I know," Jan said, "I'm just practicing."

Angel put down his fork and looked at her thoughtfully. "Do you really don't want him here?"

"Yes," Jan said automatically. He continued to stare at hard so she ducked her head and confessed, "No. We need him on this one."

"I wasn't talkin' about the mission."

She looked back up at him. "I can't trust him."

"Because he hurt you."

"Twice if you'll remember," Jan said, "I'm tired of being wounded by him. I have Morgan and that is all that I need."

Angel nodded. "Cole mentioned that you ain't tellin' him about the cub. Are you sure that's what's best?"

"Why do you think not?"

"Well for starters, he's Morgan's father and every kid should have one of those."

"A lot of children survive without fathers," Jan replied.

"Well I can think of one Jedi who didn't have a father and he didn't turn out so well," Angel said.

"I doubt Darth Vader became a Sith because he didn't have a father," Jan replied, "Luke turned out pretty well if I recall."

Angel grinned at her. "It was worth a shot."

Jan nodded but her smile was very small and didn't last long. "I want Morgan to have father and I want it to be Kyle, but I can't trust him."

"You're feelin's don't matter when it come to the cub's father."

"I'm not talking about my feelings," Jan explained with a sigh, "What if I did tell Kyle and then something happens and he leaves again? I don't want my son to be waiting every day for Kyle to come home. Its better if he doesn't know."

"But what if you're wrong?" Angel argued gently, "What if he don't leave? Not only are you denyin' Morgan a father but you're denyin' yourself Kyle."

Jan shook her head. "I don't want Kyle anymore."

"Now I know that ain't true."

"What makes you think that?"

"I heard you cryin' last night."

Jan paled at the knowledge. "You—you heard that?"

"I surely did."

"Kyle, did he…?"

Angel shrugged. "He didn't say nothin' so maybe not."

Jan let out another sigh of relief. It seemed likely that Kyle was unaware of her meltdown last night. She had found Kyle's picture in the drawer and all of those wounded feelings came back. It got even worse when she fell asleep and dreamed that they were a family. She had woken up in the middle of the night because of that dream and it had brought on fresh tears.

"I think you should stop ignorin' Rogue."

"Who's Rogue?"

"Kyle."

Jan scowled at Angel, feeling betrayed. "You gave him a nickname?"

"I give 'em to everybody, except the kid but that's 'cause he's to wild to pin down."

She shook her head at her foolish reaction. "I'm sorry. You have every right to be friends with Kyle."

"I know you didn't mean it," he assured her, "but like I said, I think you should be nicer to Kyle."

"Why would I do that?"

"'Cause you gotta work with him," Angel said, "you can't do that if you ain't talkin' to him."

"You don't know that." Jan said quickly, "we used to go on missions all the time together when we weren't speaking," _then again¸ _Jan thought,_ those are also the ones that almost got us killed._

"She-cat, this is important. He knows a lot more about these Sith than we do, and he really wants to protect you."

Angel was right. Kyle wouldn't have tracked her down unless he genuinely wanted to keep her safe. She never doubted that he cared about her, but his ability to stick around, that was a whole other story.

"I'll try, but I'm not making any promises," Jan said.

"That's a start," Angel replied with an encouraging nod.

Jan pulled off a piece of her muffin and ate it. She grimaced at the bland taste. "Why did I crave these?" she questioned, earning a little laugh from Angel.

Kyle appeared at the moment, unlike her, he was dressed and ready to go. A shame, Jan would have enjoyed teasing him about his unruly bed hair. Oops, she shouldn't think that. She could be nice, but not friendly.

"Good morning," he said.

"Mornin' Rogue," Angel replied.

Jan got up from her chair. "I need to get dressed. We'll be leaving for Falsir soon." She walked past Kyle without a word but then her promise to Angel resurfaced. She turned around and said, "Good morning, Kyle."

The surprised look on his face was priceless so she was smiling as she walked back to her room.

* * *

Kyle was still stunned by Jan's disposition when they landed on Falsir. She was still avoiding him most of the time but she was actually talking to him. Granted it wasn't in the warmest of tones, but still she was communicating. He chose to take that as a good sign.

The engines were still hot when Cole declared his plans to depart. Jan had given Angel a look and he had nodded in reply before following him. Kyle enjoyed the young Jedi's merriment. He reminded him of when he was at the Imperial Academy and just as lively. Amazing how years of war could make a man of his fairly young age feel decades older.

Tired of the bunk room with nothing to do, Kyle decided maybe he would go out too. He stopped in the hallway when he saw that Jan was in the galley. She had her little toolkit out and was busy fixing a pulse dampner on the table. She hadn't even seen him yet.

For a while he just watched her fix the dampner. She had always been good with machines, a perfectionist when it came to them actually. Sometimes she'd let him help others she'd shove him out of the way and tell him to sit down he was screwing things up. Seeing her work reminded him of the good times and made her seem more like the Jan he remembered.

"Are you going to stare at me all day or are you coming in?" Jan asked him without looking up from her work.

Kyle smiled at her intuitiveness. Years of working together had made it to where they could always sense the other's presence. "Do you need any help with that?"

"Not if I want to fix this."

He didn't sit across from her. Instead he elected to lean against the wall and continue to watch her. "How long do you think the others will be out?"

"With Cole it could be all night."

Kyle chuckled and shook his head. "When I was his age I wasn't get _that_ much action. He must know a thing or two."

"You know more than a thing or two," Jan replied, still focusing on the dampner.

A smile broke out across Kyle's face. "Really?"

"Wipe that smile off your face," she said without looking up.

"How'd you know I was smiling?"

"Because you're a man."

Now he had to laugh. "I suppose that's true," he replied. Their usual tension was fading fast so he decided to push the limits to see if he could wipe it out completely. "You know more than a thing or two, yourself."

Jan finally took her eyes off of her work to look at him. A little smile curved her lips. "Oh I know."

"How would you know?" he asked.

"A woman is always confident in her skill."

"You more than any of them, I'll bet," Kyle replied still grinning.

Jan still had the pleasant look on her but it died when her finger pricked something sharp. "Ouch!" she cried, "Blast!" She pulled her hand out of the dampner to show that blood was beginning to drip from the wound.

"How bad is it?" Kyle asked, a little concerned.

"Hurts is all."

Jan stood up from the table just as he walked over to have a look himself. It wasn't a serious wound, but definitely painful. "Where's your med-kit?" he asked.

"In the infirmary."

Her answer made Kyle scowl at her. "Jan, how many times have I told you that when you're fixing something bring—."

"A med-kit," Jan finished for him with a groan, "I know, I know."

Kyle shook his head at her and swiped a dishrag hanging from a hook near the sink. "Put pressure on it," he told her before leaving from the infirmary. He grabbed some bacta gel and a bandage before returning to the galley.

Jan was still standing in front of the table pressing the rag over her finger. "Give me your finger," Kyle told her. She obeyed and he spread the gel on the wound and then wrapped the bandage around it. "You want me to kiss it to make it better?" he teased.

"I'm fine," she assured him.

They were close, very close actually. She wasn't in her usual prickly mood and she wasn't pushing him away. Kyle had two options: walk away and leave things as they were or risk all to try and fix things between them completely. He'd taken risks before, some worked, some didn't. Point being, he wasn't afraid to push limits.

Kyle put his hands on the table, trapping her in the space between his arms. Jan gripped the edge of the table. "What are you doing?" she whispered.

"About these skills I posses," he said, leaning closer to her, "Care to enlighten me?"

"And make your ego even bigger?" Jan replied, smiling a little now, "Not a chance."

"And I if I beg?"

Jan shook her head. "I never surrender."

"Never?" he questioned, now merely inches away from her face.

_Turn your brain back on, Jan!_ she screamed at herself in her mind. Everything remained a black. All she knew was that raising that white flag looked like a very good option. He was going to kiss her and then she would lose all sense of thought completely.

Their lips were just about to brush together when someone cleared their throat. Jan gasped and turned to see that Angel was standing in the doorway, watching them with an amused twinkle in his eyes. "Should I come back later?"

"No," Jan said quickly, shoving Kyle away. "Is something wrong?"

"I reckon you could say that."

"What happened?"

"Well the kid was being himself, and I swear I took my eyes off of him for only a second, then he was bein' arrested."

"Arrested!" Jan shrieked, "What did he do?"

"Kissed the Gov'ners wife."

"Sithspit," she whispered, shaking her head, "Take me to the prison and I'll bail him out." She muttered under her breath, "Luke is going to kill me."

Kyle touched her arm to grab her attention. "Should we talk later?"

All of he synapses were working again. She was frustrated at Cole for falling into this mess while a price was on her head, and she was angry at herself for nearly falling into a trap her stupid feelings had laid out for her. "There's nothing to talk about, Kyle," she replied before turning away.

Angel followed Jan off of the ship. "I know I told you to be nice, but I didn't think you'd be _that_ nice."

"Shut up, Angel."

* * *

The shadow slipped under the hatch on the ship and hid in a corner by the commons area, three men were sitting down; the two older ones were berating the youngest. Something had happened early but it was irrelevant, there was only one mission that was absolutely necessary and it dealt with the woman.

She was not among the men which meant she was alone.

Perfect.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

"She was begging for me, honest!" Cole exclaimed in his own defense.

"But you didn't ask for her name?" Kyle asked; he was now starting to understand why the others sometimes found Cole troublesome.

"She was hot and desperate," he explained, "why would I ruin that with names?"

"Cause she was the govner's wife that's why," Angel gritted out angrily.

"This isn't my fault!"

Kyle was about to give his own lecture to the rascally young Jedi but a dark presence nagged at the back of his mind. He glanced behind him but saw nothing there. His eyes flicked back to his companions and he noticed that Cole was looking towards the same area too.

Something was wrong.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Jan didn't know who she was more angry at, Cole or herself.

With Cole it was easy, he was an idiot. Only a hormonal crazed kid would think it was a good idea to seduce the governor's wife, then get arrested and wind up in jail for the night. Now she was out one hundred credits and Luke was going to kill her.

She sighed and sat down heavily on the bed in her quarters, of course if Cole was an idiot than she was completely brain dead; that was the only explanation she could think of for first flirting with Kyle than nearly letting him kiss her. She was insane, how could she have forgotten that he had abandoned her: twice!

The worst part was that it wasn't her own stupidity that frustrated her the most; no it was the fact that Angel had interrupted their near kiss that she was really upset about. She wanted to kiss him which meant now Jan had sunk to the depths of the brainless girls who went loopy over the next hot guy.

Except the only guy Jan when mad over was Kyle.

She slammed her fist down on the bed, _stupid Jan just get him out of your head, you can't forget what he's done, it doesn't matter how you feel about him, don't let him worm his way into your heart again!_

A sickening thought came over Jan, what if Kyle had never left her heart but her anger had just clouded it?

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

The shadow waited patiently as the men finally resumed their conversation, the two Jedi had sensed him but he was well hidden, time was all they needed to feel at ease again. With their minds occupied with their discussion the shadow clung to the wall and slowly crept down the hallway to the room where the woman would most likely be.

Once out of sight of the men the shadow moved faster but still silently until it finally reached its goal. The shadow slowly slithered underneath door and moved to the nearest corner to hide for a moment.

The woman was on the bed having some sort of internal debate, her mind was completely occupied so she hadn't noticed anything now she would be unawares.

Unaware that death was in her room.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

_Snap out of this_ Jan thought to her self angrily, _stop thinking about Kyle, right this minute just stop it!_

For a moment she let her mind be blank, instead focusing on the ceiling, until she heard the muffled voices of the men in the commons area and she began to wonder what Kyle was doing.

Jan groaned at her failure and rolled over on the bed now facing the other part of the room; that was when she noticed the darkness.

Not darkness really, more like a shadow, but the shadow wasn't being cast by anything. It looked like the shadow of some man but there were no features and nobody else in the room. Jan blinked a couple times believing at first it was just her imagination but every time the shadow was still there.

And now it was moving towards her.

Jan got off of the bed and reached for her blaster but the shadow was fast and was soon before her but it wasn't cast onto the ground. It was standing in front of her!

Blackness, that was all it was just blank darkness she could see through vaguely like a normal shadow except this one was erect and was caused by nothing she could see.

"He—!" Jan began to scream but the shadow's hands circled her throat and began to squeeze, silencing her voice and now stopping her breath.

Jan struggled against the opaque darkness but whatever she kicked or punched became nothing but air, all that seemed solid were the hands that were slowly killing her. She clawed at the shadow's arms but it felt no pain.

Now her thoughts were becoming fuzzy as spots swam in her vision, she couldn't fight a shadow; she couldn't break its invisible grip.

She was going to die.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Kyle was still arguing with Cole when he felt the disturbance again, like someone else was on the ship but he would have seen them. Instead of searching with his eyes, Kyle decided to seek out the disturbance with the Force.

He saw darkness, a moving darkness.

A shadow's hands wrapped around someone's throat.

Jan lying on the floor.

Kyle sprang up from his seat without a word and rushed down the hallway towards Jan's quarters, Angel and Cole followed curious as to his outburst. He didn't bother to check the door, just used his powers to unlock it and burst into the room.

Jan was fighting a dark figure as it was slowly strangling her, and even more disturbing, Kyle could see through it.

His sudden entrance startled the shadow so it loosened its grip on Jan's throat; she took in a quick breath but the grip tightened again. Angel tried to grab the shadow but his hand slipped through it.

"What do you we do?!" Cole cried, seeing Jan's eyes slowly slip closed.

Kyle grabbed Cole's shoulder and forced him to turn around. "We need to combine our concentrated power."

"How?"

"Slip into a trance and then do exactly as I say."

Angel watched in fascination as the two Jedi closed their eyes and completely united all of their power into one. In this state, Cole seemed to know automatically what Kyle wanted to do because they both held out their hands towards the shadow attacked Jan. Rays of light emanated from their palms, making the room glow.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

The shadow was loosening its grip on the unconscious girl when the light struck it. It was a burning sensation, not fire, but intense acid. How had Katarn found a way to attack him? He was still a new Jedi.

It hardly mattered. Quickly, the shadow vanished before the Jedi light could consume it completely.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Once the shadow disappeared the two Jedi broke from their trance tired from the exhausting concentration. Kyle didn't pause to catch his breath, he forced himself to move quickly to Jan who was slumped on the floor coughing and gasping for air.

He knelt down and pulled her up against him, "Shhh," he said soothingly, "Calm down, breath slowly, long and deep." She was shaking like a leaf, and her heart was racing but she began to breathe slower, finally letting air reach her lungs for a longer period of time. She was clutching him like he was an anchor and Kyle gently rubbed circles on her back to try and keep her calm.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Cole asked about the power the two men had used.

"I did some research over the last year," Kyle explained, "but truthfully I didn't know if it would work, or even really what I was doing, instinct I guess."

"What…"Jan gasped, her throat hoarse, "was…that?"

Kyle shook his head, "I don't know…it was some kind of manifestation of the Dark Side, I could sense that."

"What…" she gasped again, "took you…so long?"

Kyle chuckled softly, "It took us a moment to figure out what was going on, it's not everyday you see a _shadow_ attack someone."

"Who'd do somthin' like this?" Angel asked his eyes focused on Jan.

"The Sith," Kyle replied, spitting out the word like it had a bad taste, "but I've never heard of any power like this."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

"A Shadow Walker," Luke explained, "I've found a few mentions of them in the archives, they are very rare and exclusively for the Dark Side."

"Makes sense," Cole remarked, "Only darkness can control darkness."

Jan was with them when they contacted Luke, she was still recovering from her attack and trying to hide the fact that her hands were still shaking. Three imperials with blasters she could handle any day of the week, but a homicidal shadow that could turn intangible at will, that hadn't been a part of her training.

"We must have discovered Ganis's special power," Luke continued, "and by all accounts it's as fearsome as we believed."

"So the guy can send out shadows as assassins?" Kyle asked.

"More than that," the Jedi master replied, "he can actually watch people through shadows, a very effective espionage agent."

"Wait a minute," Jan interrupted, "You're saying that the guy can watch me just because I cast a shadow."

"Yes."

"That's just great," Jan replied sarcastically, "are there any planets we can go to where it's always noon, or do I need to start worrying that my shadow is working against me_._"

"You misunderstand Jan," Luke went on, "he can only manipulate shadows if he is close enough to focus on you, he needs to be within the same system."

"That means that Ganis is nearby right now!" Kyle exclaimed.

Luke nodded, "Yes, and he knows exactly where you are."

"This is bad," Jan said, "very very bad!"

"What are we supposed to do?" Cole asked.

Angel looked at him with an annoyed look on his face, "Leave!"

"But he'll follow us," he pointed out.

"Cole's right," Kyle said his thoughts were focused on a plan, "we need to confuse him, it's obviously Jan that he is focused on so we need to make him follow somebody else." He looked to Angel, "Can you fly the _Claw_?"

"Yep."

"Good, you and Cole take the ship to Coruscant, hopefully he'll follow you and lose track of Jan."

"And you and I will be?" Jan asked icily.

"We will take a public transport and get as far away from here as we can."

Jan shook her head, "No way, I'm not going off with _you_ alone."

"You don't have much of a choice Jan," Kyle replied annoyed at her stubbornness, "You can't go off on your own and with the Sith, you need somebody who can wield the Force to protect you…unless you'd rather go with Cole."

The younger man's eyes brightened up at that idea, Jan noticed that he all but started panting like a happy puppy. _So I have to choose between the sex-crazed teenager and the man who broke my heart,_ Jan thought, _can it get any worse than this?_

She looked at one man to the next not liking any option, finally she sighed and turned to Kyle, "When do we leave?"

* * *

A/N: A Shadow Walker, isn't that creepy? Well now Kyle and Jan are going to have to go off together ALONE. How is that going to end? Well you're just going to have to wait for the answer. Reviewing always make the writing process faster.


	6. Chapter 5: Some Alone Time

Disclaimer: We are not billionairs so no we do not own anything dealing with Star Wars. All of this is just for fun.

A/N Tinuviel Undomiel: We hope the break for the past week or so had made you even more anxious for this chapter. We are currently enjoying a major Star Wars marathon. We started at 10:30 this morning with The Phantom Menace and are now over halfway through A New Hope. I doubt we can finish the whole series in one night, but that would be pretty cool. Anyways, this chap will bring out Kyle's reasons for leaving Jan a second time as well as have Jan make a crucial mistake that's repercussions may ruin her relationship wih Kyle forever. If that doesn't make you want to read this chapter then I don't know what would.

A/N Nerwen Aldarion: So did you miss us or did you enjoy your repast without Dare to Dream? I know I missed posting so it's nice to be back on track with this story. While this chapter is fun I can't wait for the next one, it's got one of my favorite scenes in it.

**Shanesnest**: Aww shanesnest we were hoping that you would like Jan and Kyle's flirtation but apparently your anger for Kyle overshadows Jan's LOL. Yeah the shadow thing was cool huh? We love Ganis because he is creepy so we're glad that you agree, don't worry about Kyle screwing up again, he's beginning to learn of course the person you should be worrying about is Jan, after all anger makes people do some pretty stupid things... Oh and the playlist is pretty cool, we've got more song choices for you if you're intersted

* * *

Chapter 5: Some Alone Time

To say Jan was unhappy with the situation was an understatement. To say she was _furious_ with the situation was an even bigger understatement. Some depraved Sith that could control shadows was trying to kill her, she couldn't go home to see Morgan and now she was stuck wandering the galaxy with Kyle. Funny, when she had first accepted this mission she had thought it wouldn't be so hard, now it felt like she was back in the war, hopping from base to base for months on end. Except she wasn't dropping Kyle off and praying he would survive, this time her life was the one in serious jeopardy.

She watched as her beloved ship blasted off without her, leaving her all alone with a man she couldn't stand partly from anger and partly from fear that she'll give in to him again. But she knew she could count on him. Kyle would protect her while Cole would try (and fail) to seduce her, leaving her no choice but to kill him.

Of course being with Kyle might have the same result. If something happened between them again like on the _Claw_…she'd have to be careful. Being alone with him meant having to be close to him and there would be no one around to bring her back to her senses.

"Are you ready?" Kyle asked. He had his bag on his shoulder and his lightsaber ready at his belt. Jan was armed with her blaster, not that either weapon would be of much use against someone who could become a shadow.

"I guess," she said with a sigh, picking up her own bag. She had left Morgan's picture on the ship in case Kyle should ever find it. They looked too much alike for him to not figure it out.

"Any destination in mind?" she asked Kyle as they headed to the public transportation dock.

"We need to be spontaneous and change locations every two days at least," he said.

"Well you would certainly be an expert at this game by now," Jan grumbled to him.

"Unfortunately Shadow Walkers weren't on my itinerary."

The transportation dock was very crowded. Jan had been trying to keep some distance between her and Kyle, but when they reached the dock the bastard grabbed her hand so he wouldn't lose her. He stopped in front of the display that listed the various destinations of the shuttles.

"There's one leaving for Spira in twenty minutes," Kyle suggested.

Spira was home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the galaxy. It was a popular vacation spot for newlyweds and a place Jan had always wanted to see, but certainly not with a man she hated—or was trying to hate. "You better be kidding, Katarn."

"I am," he assured her with a grin; "we need to go somewhere less prominent."

"What about Ruara?" Jan suggested.

Kyle shook his head at her. "It's too close to Coruscant."

"So?

"We don't want to go near Coruscant. It might draw them there."

"They want me, not Mon Mothma," Jan replied, "We won't be there long and if we get called home we won't be too far away."

"This won't be solved in two days," Kyle said to her, "There isn't any point getting close to Coruscant seeing as how you won't be going home in the near future."

"Well where do you suggest we go then?" Jan demanded, not at all in the mood to like anything Kyle chose.

"Veikon II," he said.

"That's practically in the Outer Rim!" Jan exclaimed.

"Exactly. It's far away from anything important and they'll be less likely to follow us if we travel that far."

"And it will be harder for us to contact Mon Mothma."

"Another point," he said, "We shouldn't contact them much anyways. Ganis might be able to track it."

No updates on her son? No! Jan was already being forced to be away from him for much longer than she ever wanted and now she couldn't even check on him? She was going to strangle this Sith bastard with her bare hands, scary powers be damned!

"I can't do that," Jan replied, "I need to be able to communicate to Coruscant."

"We can talk to Angel for updates. He can scramble the transmission so Ganis won't be able to find us."

"_I_ want to communicate, I don't want to go through Angel," Jan said with a frustrated cry.

"I'm only trying to think of your safety," Kyle said.

"Well I'm thinking about more important things."

"Like what?" he wanted to know, apparently getting frustrated himself, "It's not like you have anyone at home waiting for you."

"Who says I don't?"

Jan honestly didn't mean for it to come out like that. She hadn't meant to imply that she was in a relationship with someone, but once it was out she was actually glad. Making it seem like she was off the market would surely keep Kyle from trying to kiss her again, which would also keep her heart from betraying her again.

The key would be spin, not lie. Imply with her words but never lie. Kyle had always been able to see her bluffs.

Kyle froze after she said that. "You have someone waiting for you?"

"Yes."

"You're seeing someone?" he asked again for extra verification.

Ooh, tricky. "We're living together," she replied with a smile. Now it looked really serious.

Kyle ducked his head to the ground so she was now unable to read his expression. "Do you love him?"

"More than anyone," she stated proudly. It was true; she did love her son more than anything in the galaxy.

Kyle looked back up to meet her eyes. Those brown depths that reminded her so much of Morgan's were filled with pain, bleak agony. "That's good, Jan."

Force, what had she done?! Never in the length of time she had known him had she ever intentionally hurt Kyle. Now look at him. She had just suggested that she no longer loved Kyle, perhaps never really loved him. Jan knew she would be crushed if Kyle had ever said such a thing to her.

She almost told him the truth. She was going to spill all, everything including the fact that the man waiting at home for her was their nine month old son. However, just as she opened her mouth Kyle spoke up. "If you want to protect this person then I'm telling you, we need to stay away from Coruscant. If you love him that much then I'm sure you'll do the right thing."

Kyle was right. She couldn't be selfish especially when it came to Morgan. "Alright, we'll go to Veikon II."

"I'm glad you agreed," he said. His voice was so quiet, lacking the usual life it normally carried. Guilt was having a gay old time boring a hole into the pit of her stomach.

"Kyle, I have to—." She was about to confess again, but he didn't let her finish.

"It's leaving soon so we better get the tickets now."

He didn't want to talk anymore. Perhaps that was for the best. Talking hadn't been very effective for them lately. Still, even as they were boarding the transport, Jan felt guilty.

And feared that she had made a terrible mistake.

* * *

Kyle and Jan were silent the entire trip to Veikon II which took several hours. He couldn't stop thinking about what she had said. Jan had found someone else. It was more painful than anything he had ever felt before and he had known many different kinds of pain.

He had never thought about her meeting someone else. Even when he left the first time, presumably the last time he was supposed to see her, he had never considered the possibility of her falling for someone. And then after what she said on Illeena…it was best not to dwell on that anymore.

Since they were going to keep a low profile it would be best if they used assumed names. They needed to avoid attention so nothing out of the ordinary. A bounty hunter or an Imperial would be on the look out for a man and woman traveling on their own….unless they had a valid reason. Kyle hid the smile that was desperately trying to break out across his face. Jan wasn't going to like this idea so he was going to keep this from her until the last second.

There transport landed with a jarring stop that sent its passengers lunging forward in their restraints. Jan shook her head when everything quieted down. "The captain of this thing needs to take flying lessons."

"I doubt he's ever had to avoid Imperial Tie-Fighters or outwit Star Destroyers," Kyle replied with a grin in hopes of improving her mood.

"No excuse," she replied in a voice that was a few degrees warmer.

They grabbed their bags and left the transport. "So where are we going to stay?" Jan asked, "And it better not be some cheap dump filled with bugs."

"I remember your hatred for all insects," he replied, "Don't worry, I was thinking about a middle class inn. Nothing fancy but not a trash can either."

"It better not be like that dump on Onderaan," Jan said.

"That was where you had to wear my shirt because all you had was that skimpy costume, right?"

"I thought we agreed to never mention that again."

Kyle smiled at the memory. "You did make the best stripper."

"Kyle," she said.

"Yes Jan?"

"Shut up."

"Yes Jan."

They found a comfortable place to stay called _The Starlight Inn_. Inside, a plump looking woman greeted them with a smile. "Hi there, how can I help you today?"

Time to initiate the plan. Jan was going to hate him for this; oh well, she already hated him so what harm could it do?

"Yes we need a room," he told her with a matching smile, "I'm Morgan Rahn and this is my wife Heidi. We're newlyweds."

Jan's face turned ghost white and then a bright red. She had her fists clenched tight at her sides and no doubt was imagining a hundred different ways to kill him, all of them very slow and very painful. "Excuse me," she told the woman, "I need to talk to my _husband_," she said the word as it were poisonous.

She grabbed Kyle and dragged out of ear shot. "What the hell are you doing?" she whispered harshly.

"Creating a cover story."

"A what?!"

"We can't advertise who we are," he explained, "Bounty hunters and Imperials are combing this galaxy looking for you. They won't be looking for Morgan and Heidi Rahn."

"Why the name Heidi?" she growled.

"She was my primary school crush."

"It sounds like the name of a stripper!"

Kyle shrugged. "Well you did play one once."

Jan gave him a hard punch to his shoulder but that didn't keep him from snickering. Apparently she had agreed to the charade because she didn't beg off. He took a step further and grabbed her hand. Jan retaliated by squeezing it with a nearly bone crushing grip that made him release her.

"Are you ready for your room?" the innkeeper asked, still with that sugary smile.

"Yes please," he replied.

"Alright then, it's room twelve." She handed him the key-card, still smiling. "Enjoy your stay."

Even Kyle was beginning to get annoyed by the woman's giddy personality. "We will," he said and then ushered Jan away from the desk. His companion's attitude was the complete opposite of the innkeeper's.

They found room twelve easily and the first thing the focused on was the one bed. "If you think you're getting a wedding night, Katarn, then you've got another thing coming," Jan informed.

"I promise you the thought never crossed my mind."

"Never?" she challenged.

"I'm too tired to consider anything besides sleeping."

"Good," Jan stated before collapsing on the bed. Apparently she was exhausted too.

"I'll take the floor," he offered.

Jan sighed. "We're both adults Kyle and we've slept together before." The words she just spoke hit and she shook her head. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant we've had to share a bed before on missions, so it's no big deal."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"What about your boyfriend?"

"Keep this up and I'll make you sleep on the floor."

Kyle immediately shut up and dropped his bag. The bed wasn't very big which meant they couldn't avoid each other while they were in it. Jan was lying on her side, facing the window, but still Kyle was struggling to fit. He wound up turning on his side and draping his arm over Jan's abdomen.

"What the hell are you doing?" she sat up and demanded.

"Well where else am I going to put it? This bed is about the size of a data-pad."

"Fine," Jan grumbled and lay back down to sleep, theoretically. At least it was for Kyle. He couldn't stop thinking about a million different things. Why was a Sith Lord after Jan? Who was this guy in her life? Was there anyway he could earn back her trust…and her heart?

The past year and half he had pondered over his decision to leave her a second time. Before their encounter on Illeena he hadn't regretted his decision, but afterward... He knew it would hurt her, but he knew that if he had told her what he was going to do she would follow. His mission to conquer his darkness, which meant hunting down the last of the Sith, was to dangerous for her to come with him.

His decision hadn't been easy, but he had hoped that it would be for the best. Apparently he was wrong.

"Are you asleep yet?" Kyle asked Jan after several minutes of silence.

"If I were I wouldn't be talking to you," she replied.

"That's not exactly true anymore."

"I'm talking to you," Jan said, "just in very angry responses. These responses will continue to get even more bitter the longer you keep me up."

"Fine, then good night Jan."

There was a long moment of silence before he heard her whisper in a very soft, not angry tone, "Good night, Kyle."

* * *

They left Veikon II two days later and moved on to Unire, another planet far away from Coruscant. Jan had spoken to Angel in private and he had assured her that Morgan was doing well. Mindy was taking good care of him but Jan felt like she was missing key moments out of her young son's life. It seemed like everyday he was getting smarter.

Being back with Kyle was making it harder to hate him. At times it felt like they were back to when they were partners. She was constantly reminding herself of what he had done to her and who she had to protect. Her bluff seemed to be working because he had stopped trying to patch things up between them when it came to their confessions a year and a half ago. He seemed to want to be friends again, and she could not deny that she wanted that too. Maybe she wanted more than that…no, she couldn't want that. Her heart wasn't safe with him.

"You're quiet," Kyle said as they walked through the deserted streets of Unire. It was dark upon their arrival so now they were looking for a place to stay. The dark was both their ally and enemy. Jan knew the dark hid them, but it also hid any foes seeking them out.

"I'm worried."

"About your death mark?"

"About ever going home again," she replied.

There was a sad lilt to Kyle's voice when he asked, "You miss him, don't you?"

"Yes," she admitted with another pang of guilt for causing him pain.

Kyle nodded. "I'll bring you back to him. I promise."

Jan forgot her anger again when he said those words. He was willing to give her up to make her happy? Again she almost told him the truth, but the sudden shot of a blaster hitting the wall next to her made her abandon her plan.

Kyle flicked his lightsaber into life while Jan pulled out her pistol. Damn! How could they have found them so quickly?

Another shot was fired but Kyle deflected it away. Jan fired off her own bolt but she couldn't see if it hit anything. Their attacker was very good at skulking in the shadows.

"I can't see him," she said, "You don't think its…?"

Kyle shook his head. "I don't sense anything."

Another shot was fired but this time it was straight and not at an angle like the others. "He's on the ground now," Jan said.

There was an odd whirring sound and then a blue beam was shot at them. It missed but struck the wall, sending out a piercing wave of sound. Jan and Kyle both covered their ears reflexively. "Sonic blast!" he shouted to her.

Blast! Whoever this guy was, he was smart. He must have known she would have a Jedi with her, why else would he use a sonic weapon? The blast was so loud it disrupted concentration, making it impossible for Kyle to tap into the Force until the sound faded.

Their attacker stepped into the light now. He was in full body armor, shining silver in the moonlight. He had a helmet on that was no doubt blocking out the sound. He had a rifle out but Jan could see the sonic pistol at his side.

"Too easy," he complained, "I thought Jedi were supposed to be powerful. Apparently the Force is the only true weapon you have."

Jan met Kyle's eyes and they spoke to her, _Keep him talking_.

"You're not an Imperial," Jan said.

The man snorted. "As if I'd ever work for those bastards. No, I'm a bounty hunter."

"Then you _are_ working for them."

"Only for the credits. You're worth a lot of money, Miss Ors."

"You mean my head," she replied.

He shook his head. "The notice wants you alive."

This was news to them both. Jan looked over at Kyle again, but all she saw was a puzzled expression. The sonic blast was starting to fade. Soon Kyle would be able to use the Force; hopefully they could keep him talking until then.

"How much am I worth?"

"Five thousand credits."

Jan made a show of blinking in surprise. "Wow, that's more than I've ever earned on a job." She looked over at Kyle. "Mon Mothma isn't paying us enough."

"I've always said that," he replied.

"A pity that you two have been cheated," the bounty hunter replied just as he raised his rifle. "But I'm ready to collect my bounty now."

Jan ducked just before he fired to stun shot. It skimmed over her head and hit the wall behind her. Kyle reactivated his lightsaber and stood in front of her as her protection.

The bounty hunter fired one worthless shot at Kyle and then quickly fired another one at Jan. He didn't have time to deflect it, but she managed to leap out of the way before it struck her. She hit the ground rolling and lost her blaster in the process.

Kyle was too focused on her that he didn't see the bounty hunter pulled out his sonic pistol. "Kyle!" she shouted out her warning too late. The shot hit him square in the chest and he fell backwards.

Fear engulfed her and she climbed to her feet to scurry over to Kyle. She cradled his head on her knees and she felt his pulse beat beneath her fingers. "I set it for stun," the bounty hunter told her as he walked over. "They want him too."

"I thought they just wanted me," she said. If Kyle was stunned then the shot would wear off soon. Just like before, she needed to keep him occupied until he could wake up. "Do you know why they want us?"

"I don't ask questions except when it deals with money."

Jan stood up. She was unarmed and alone at the moment. Everything depended on her to make sure this hunter stayed chatty. "How did you manage to obtain a sonic pistol?" she asked, "Most were destroyed after order sixty-six because they were deemed worthless. Those that survived are worth quite a bit of money."

"I found a weapons collector on Bulaash," he explained, "This was his most prized artifact."

"Did you kill him?"

"Of course."

Jan crossed her arms over her chest to feign being relaxed. "I suppose you collected all of the weapons. Do you plan to sell them for profit?"

"Perhaps," he admitted, "though some of them are rather impressive. I'm keeping the 434 Death Hammer."

Jan grinned. "A favorite of bounty hunters from the Old Republic, impressive."

"I'm very pleased with it. Now I tire of this conversation." He traded in the sonic pistol for an ordinary blaster and set the charge for stun.

"Don't you think the Republic will pay more for our release than your bounty?" she questioned.

"I doubt it," he said. He pointed the blaster at her just as Jan leapt away. The shot struck her shoulder which made her entire arm go numb. She fell to the ground with a cry of anguish. She was out of options and now crippled.

The bounty hunter shook his head at her. "You're a stubborn woman, but you're not strong enough without your Jedi to protect you."

His blaster was aiming for her again, just as Kyle leapt back onto his feet and rammed his lightsaber through the hunter's armor, piercing clean through his chest. The bounty hunter let out a gasp of pain and then sank to the ground when the saber retreated.

Kyle deactivated his lightsaber and knelt to the ground beside Jan. "Are you hurt?"

"My arm's numb," she told him while rubbing the motionless limb.

"I'm sorry I didn't wake up in time," he apologized.

"They want us both, Kyle," she said. Tears were stinging at her eyes. She tried to blink them away but he saw them.

"Hey," he said softly and cupped her cheek with his palm, "It's going to be okay."

"I want to go home," she whispered, "I'm tired of running. I want to go home."

A tear fell down her cheek. Kyle pulled her into his arms let her draw comfort from his strength, from the bond that anger and heartbreak still could not destroy. "It'll end soon," he promised her, "I'll make everything safe again."

She believed him. She trusted him.

* * *

Kyle found a small comfortable inn with a vacancy, Jan didn't listen to whatever tale he'd spun for them this time, she didn't care anymore. Her mind was completely overwhelmed by the events of the day, a Jedi hunter/bounty hunter had been on their tail, the Sith and Castin Mohc were still after them and worst of all she was losing time, time to be with her son.

Sleep eluded Jan; she couldn't close her eyes without seeing the terrible events that were occurring. Kyle was having worse luck than her, she realized, he was sitting by the window looking out at the street as if looking for an unseen attacker, maybe another shadow.

"Do you sense anything?" Jan asked him.

He turned to look at her, "No, not from the Dark Side at least. I just have a bad feeling, it seems like everyone in the galaxy is hunting us."

Jan sighed and sat up in the bed, letting her feet rest on the floor, "I wish I knew what they are after," she said resting her head in her hands, "I don't like running like this, it feels cowardly, like I'm not doing something I'm supposed to."

"You and I were never good at retreating," he replied smiling at little.

"But you are _very_ good at hiding," she remarked, her voice had a biting edge of anger on it.

Kyle gave her an exasperated look, "I don't want to argue Jan."

"Then don't say anything to me Kyle."

"I'm not the one who started this conversation," he pointed out, "you're the one who is trying to pick a fight. Why do you have to keep bringing this up? Just let it go."

"I can't!"

"Why not?!"

"Because you hurt me Kyle," she explained, anger was still prominent in her voice but he watched as it slowly melted away and instead she appeared vulnerable and sad, "you hurt me and I don't understand why…why did you leave? After what happened between us you still left, did it mean nothing to you at all?"

Kyle looked at her for a long time, choosing his words carefully, "It meant something Jan, it meant more to me than anything ever has."

"Than why did you go?"

"Because I _am_ afraid," he told her meaningfully, "I'm afraid of myself, of what I can do, of the anger and hatred that I can't get rid of. I'm afraid it will consume me, and if that happens I don't think I can stop myself from hurting you."

Jan groaned, "I'm so tired of you dwelling on what happened Ruusan, you didn't kill me and that's all that matters."

He shook his head, "You don't understand," he looked deep into her eyes, his face obscured by a shadow and for once Jan couldn't help but think that he looked almost sinister. "I wasn't angry or annoyed at you, I wasn't wanting to kill you in a carefree, 'I don't mean it' manner," Kyle's eyes narrowed, "I wanted to kill you for the sake of watching you die. To hold your life in my hands and see the fear in your eyes, I wanted that power; I wanted the power to destroy you as a weakness. In that moment I saw you as inferior, like an insect that needed to be flicked away." He spoke now through gritted teeth, "you were nothing! Just a pathetic girl that was holding me back and for that I wanted to watch the life fade from your eyes, but most of all I wanted you to die by _my_ hand, mine alone."

His grip on the armrest was so hard it made his knuckles turn white; his penetrating gaze wouldn't allow Jan to look away, even as goose-bumps appeared on her skin and a shiver ran down the length of her spine. Kyle's face from that day on Ruusan stayed in her mind, that look of pure unadulterated hatred that he had directed at her, the way his fingers twitched on the lightsaber as if itching to inflict the power of it's blade on her. Jan had tried for so long since that day to downplay his actions but now…now she realized how afraid she had been because the man she trusted more than anyone had really planned her cold blooded murder.

"Do you understand now?" he asked, his voice filled with ice, "I wanted to kill you…and that part of me still exists, even now it whispers in my mind."

Jan's mouth was suddenly dry, she licked her lips and tried to speak but her voice was still hoarse and barely a whisper, "But you stopped," she reminded him, "you resisted."

"Barely," Kyle explained, "I don't know if I'll be able to do it again."

Jan was silent for a moment, pondering what he had said. He was turning her own thoughts on end, her own beliefs and now she wondered how strong her friend really was, "That's why you left, to protect me?"

He nodded, "The first time…I didn't want you to live in fear of me and I didn't want to risk staying and hurting you…I couldn't live with that."

"But you said the first time…what about the second time after we…you know?"

He smiled, "The first time I left I had no intention of ever coming back, but after I saw you again, after you said that you loved me…well you gave me a reason to return."

"But you still left!"

"Because I was still a danger to you," Kyle explained, he thought for a moment before taking another approach, "You want to go home, you want to be with this guy that you love don't you?"

"Of course," Jan replied simply.

"But you are here; you aren't with him even though more than anything you want to go back to Coruscant."

"Because there are Sith after me and he could be hurt if I went there," Jan said wondering what Kyle was getting at."

"You are doing exactly what I did," Kyle pointed out, "staying away from the person you love to protect them, only the danger that I was trying to save you from was my self. I had to go Jan, no matter how much I wanted to stay with you, especially after everything you told me, I didn't want to leave but I had to.

"I still felt the Dark Side calling but this time I had a purpose. A goal in mind and a dream that maybe I could actually be with you one day. I traveled and tried to find everything I could find abut the Force, the Sith, the Dark Side, anything that could help me eradicate the darkness within me, or at least help me to control it."

Jan looked at him thoughtfully, "Luke said someone was killing off rogue Sith, he thought it was you."

Kyle smiled, "Well I wouldn't be me if I didn't do a few sterling good deeds."

She smiled too but it faded just as quickly, "Did you find anything?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, from what I've learned I just need to be strong enough to resist, that's the only answer I could find."

"Are you?"

He shook his head, "I have no idea…I'm not willing to risk your death to find out."

Her thoughts turned to the Sith and rogue imperials that were after them, "You may not have a choice," she surmised."

Kyle looked at her gravely, "That's what I'm afraid of."

* * *

"What has changed?" Mon Mothma's holographic image asked Kyle and Jan from the public transmission office.

"We were attacked by a bounty hunter," Kyle told her, "He informed us that the death mark is false. The Sith want her alive…and me."

"Do you think this has all been a plot to find you, Kyle?" she asked.

"Maybe, but I don't understand why they would target Jan."

Jan leaned forward so she could talk into the speaker. "Castin Mohc could be behind this. He might blame me just as much as Kyle."

"Mohc is certainly behind it, but he's not leading it," Kyle spoke up, "The Sith desire power above all else. This Ganis would never allow Castin Mohc to lead him; _he_ has to be in control."

"I agree," Mon Mothma concurred.

"What is our next course of action?" Jan wanted to know.

"Running will amount to no good it seems. If the Sith wants you both then I think you would be better protected by the Republic then on your own. I'm sending Angel to pick you up and deliver you to safety."

"To Coruscant?" Jan asked eagerly.

Mon Mothma shook her head. "I cannot risk bringing the Sith to the capital."

"I'm still not sure about this," Kyle stated.

"We can't run, forever, Kyle," Jan argued, "Eventually they will find us, especially now if we have bounty hunters on our tails."

"I understand your concern, Kyle, but I feel you both would be much safer under our protection," Mon Mothma said, "Angel should arrive in the morning."

"Thank you, Mon Mothma. We'll be waiting at the docking bay," Jan said.

"Good luck to you both." Mon Mothma blinked out into oblivion and Jan sat back and let out a long sigh.

"You're happy, aren't you?" Kyle stated more than questioned.

"I'm ready to stop running," she admitted.

"You're not going home yet," he reminded her.

"It's a start," she replied.

Jan walked away with a pleased smile on her face while Kyle watched her go. He shook his head before he started to follow her slowly. Something told him this whole thing was a big mistake. He had always been able to sense when something was wrong and now that alarm was going off in his head. He could try telling that to Jan but it would be like beating his head up against a wall. She wouldn't listen, not when the chance to go home was so near.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Jan was impatient come morning while the feeling of danger was even stronger in Kyle. His companion was in the mood to run to the docking bay while he wanted to linger. He needed to time to figure out what was troubling him, but time was something he was lacking.

Jan was the first one to reach the docking bay and she checked the roster for the _Raven's Claw_ or any other aliases the ship could be using. She shook her head to tell him that there was nothing.

A Twi'lek walked up the Jan which set Kyle on edge. "Are you Jan Ors?" he asked.

"Yes?" she asked in a voice that told Kyle that she was just as suspicious as he was.

"I am the docking master," he explained to her, "I was told to find you by someone called Angel. He wanted you to know that he came on a different ship and is waiting for you in bay seventeen."

"Why didn't he come himself?" Kyle wanted to know.

"There is a problem with the carburetor and he couldn't leave it."

"We'd better go see him then," Jan said, "I can help him fix it."

Kyle grabbed Jan's arm. "Wait, I don't like the sound of all of this. Why would Angel come on a different ship?"

"Mon Mothma probably didn't want the Sith to track him here," Jan gave as an excuse, "we left the _Claw_ because it was well known. He probably didn't use it for the same reason."

"Jan…"

"You worry too much," she waved him off before turning around.

"With good reason," he muttered to himself. He had no choice but to follow her.

Docking bay seventeen wasn't too far away and the door was open for them. This struck Kyle as odd but Jan was oblivious thanks to her deep desire to leave. A rather plain, old freighter was inside but there was no one around.

"Angel?" Jan called out just as she stepped inside. A cold feeling washed over Kyle just as the door sealed shut behind them.

A dozen troopers appeared from behind stacks of crates and raced down from the loading ramp of the ship. All of them had their blasters ready before Kyle and Jan had time to react. "Sithspit," Jan swore.

Kyle flicked on his lightsaber, but that was all he managed to do before one trooper fired his blaster. It was a blue, circular beam that struck Jan. She sank to the ground unconscious.

He didn't have much of chance, well any chance really, but he wouldn't be Kyle Katarn if he didn't try to fight back.

"I don't suggest you try it," the slick voice of an Imperial Officer told Kyle from behind him. The muzzle of a blaster was pressed into his back, telling him there wasn't any point in trying.

Kyle turned off his saber and it was quickly taken away from him. "Commander Mohc is looking forward to meeting you," the officer said just before he slammed the butt of pistol onto Kyle's head, making him join Jan in unconsciousness.

* * *

A/N: Uh oh, they are in a wee bit of trouble ain't they? Something big is coming up next. Reviews always make us work faster.


	7. Chapter 6: Sith Lords Can't Keep Secrets

Disclaimer: We have no money, thus none of these characters belong to us.

A/N Tinuviel Undomiel: Gosh this chapter took FOREVER simply because of the major action scene. It took me DAYS to finish that one and I'm still not sure if its my best work. Ah well, there's tons of good stuff in this one. Our two heroes finally meet their enemies and we learn what Ganis wants with Kyle. Also, Kyle is in for a big surprise.

A/N Nerwen Aldarion: Yeah this chapter was tough to write, I spent most of the time prodding my sister or trying to dream up ways for Jan and Kyle to get out of this one, it wasn't easy but it is FINALLY done. Read to find out what happens

**shanesnest:** Always fun to hear from you. We hope you enjoy this loooong chapter. We hope you're on the same page with us now. How's the playlist coming along, Nerwen gave you a TON of songs to listen to for inspiration. She's still gloating over the song Everything and your reaction to it.

**Lord of Anonymous:** I love your PM's. They are always a lot of fun and I hope you like this chapter, maybe it'll make you finally write your KOTOR fic which we are waiting on pins and needles for.

* * *

Chapter 6: Sith Lords Can't Keep Secrets

"Wake up Katarn! Wake up!"

The first sense Kyle regained was his hearing, Jan screaming at him was probably the reason for this. "Come on you stupid son of a Bantha wake up!"

His eyes snapped open but the harsh light automatically made him close them again, also the combination of Jan's screaming and the light sent sharp pains through his head. He groaned, "I'm awake Jan, stop shouting."

He opened his eyes again this time he was able to keep them open and saw that Jan was kneeling over him, that was when he realized that he was lying on the floor and that they were in a room he didn't recognize at all, probably a small storage room, the perfect place for a makeshift brig.

"Are you alright?" Jan asked concern evident in her voice, "You were out for a while."

"Feels like a dozen stormtroopers are stomping around in my head," he told her groaning a little from the pain.

Jan felt along his head and he hissed when she hit the spot on the back of his scalp, "You have a lump the size of a Flarion egg here," she told him.

"Lucky me," he replied sarcastically, he slowly sat up and looked around, "Have you seen anyone yet?"

Jan shook her head, "I'm sure they have guards posted outside the door but nobody's come in to speak with us yet."

Kyle sighed and his eyes flicked up to Jan's, "I knew this was a bad idea, we should have waited for more confirmation before rushing to the hanger bay."

"How was I supposed to know that it wasn't Angel?"

"The fact that he wouldn't meet with us was a clue!"

She glared at him, "There was a plausible explanation."

He wasn't taking that excuse, "Yeah, and if you hadn't been so impatient you would have realized that the explanation was that it was a trap!"

"Like you haven't screwed up once in your life," Jan scoffed, "Remember Talume? You walked right into that trap the Imperials laid for you, I told you to wait but no you had to go chase that damn bounty hunter, who had to save your ass then?"

"Well who's going to save our asses now Jan?!" Kyle asked not really expecting an answer. He almost cracked a smile, this was just typical of them, arguing over who was to blame, it was déjà vu all over again really.

"Well why don't you shut up for a minute so we can figure a way out of this so no one has to!"

The sound of approaching footsteps interrupted their thoughts, "Look's like we need to put the escape plans on hold," Kyle told her, "we have company."

It didn't take long for the door to open, four Imperial guards stepped through the door followed by a young man, in his mid to late twenties, in a commander's uniform. The resemblance between this young man and General Rom Mohc was striking; it was obvious that this was his son.

"Commander Castin Mohc I presume," Jan sneered, "I thought you'd be taller."

He glared at her in return, "You must be Jan Ors," his eyes now turned to Kyle and he couldn't hide the glee he was feeling, "And you must be Kyle Katarn, the two people responsible for my father's murder and my humiliation, I can't tell you how much I've waited for this day."

"No but you're going to anyways," Kyle mumbled just as sarcastic as Jan.

"My father was the greatest general the Empire ever knew," Castin said through gritted teeth, "the Dark Trooper Project was his dream, and you destroyed it, you killed him! After that I was considered weak, the Emperor himself personally rebuked me!" now he smiled maliciously, "I see now that it was my blessing, you see I survived when he did not and now, now it is my turn. Now I will have the power to destroy the Republic and I will be the ruler, now I will surpass my father."

"With what?" Kyle asked scoffing at the younger man, "you have a few ships and men but nothing to compare to the Republic, you'll be crushed within a day and you'll be nothing more than a paragraph in a primary school's history book."

Jan silently applauded Kyle's wit; she'd always admired his way of bringing the enemy down with his words.

Mohc glared at Kyle, "I _will_ have the power, a weapon more dangerous than you could ever dream, it will bring the Republic to it's knees and the galaxy will be under Imperial control once again," now he smiled cruelly at the Jedi, "and you will help me."

"Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged," Mohc replied, "in fact I will personally make sure of it," he promised, "but first we need you alive, that's the only way we will get the information we need."

Now Jan was confused, "What information?"

Mohc laughed, "You needn't worry Miss Ors, your partner isn't hiding anything from you." He smiled once more, "in fact he doesn't even know that he carries it."

Both Jan and Kyle were confused, information that he didn't even know he had? Either Mohc had a few screws loose of they knew something he didn't. "What are you talking about?" Kyle finally asked exasperated.

Mohc laughed, "Have you ever heard of the Abscissor?" Both operatives turned to each other with blank glances and Castin laughed again, "I'm not surprised, almost all records of this weapon were erased, you see it was created almost two thousand years ago by Sith scientists in order to purge planets loyal to the Jedi.

"However the Jedi found and captured this weapon before it could be used against them, after careful study they deemed the weapon to be too dangerous and ordered it to be destroyed. One Jedi Knight was instructed with this task, a Jedi by the name of Alic Ka'tan

"Over the years the Ka'tan line has continued, but time and migration has changed the name to Katarn," He smiled once more, "your ancestor."

Kyle nodded, "Thanks for the genealogy lesson, but you said it yourself this Abscissor was destroyed."

"Was it?" Mohc asked, "I'm working with a man—,"

"Let me guess," Jan interrupted, "Jerec's only living apprentice, Ganis."

"I'm impressed," Castin remarked, "As you are aware, Jerec was interested in many ancient Jedi artifacts, including the Valley of the Jedi, but Ganis is more interested in weapons that can be used in the war. He has found information that Alic Ka'tan did not destroy the Abscissor as once believed, he was afraid that the Jedi might need it some day, so he hid it from the Council in the far reaches of space."

"That's great," Kyle replied, "but I don't know where it is and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

"But you do know Katarn," Mohc replied, "and as for sharing the information, you won't have any choice. Ganis has many ways of extracting the truth." He smiled cruelly once again, "You see the knowledge of the Abscissor's location was only known to Ka'tan, but that information has been passed on from generation to generation all the way to his descendent…you."

Jan gasped, "You're talking about genetic memory."

"Precisely."

Kyle shook his head, "You're wrong, you won't find anything from me."

Mohc just smiled, "As I said you won't have a choice, Ganis has methods to find the information he seeks, very painful methods," His smile broadened, "I cannot wait to observe."

* * *

"I got there too late," Angel told Mon Mothma via hologram from the cockpit of the _Raven's Claw_, "The dock master was willin' to talk, but when I got to the hangar, the darn ship had already blasted away."

"You did all you could, Angel," Mon Mothma assured him.

"That's not all we're doin'. The kid here is in some kinda trance, tryin' to find Rogue—I mean Kyle—in the Force. Frankly, I don't understand it, but in short we're tryin' to track 'em."

"What is your plan when you find them?"

"I honestly don't know, ma'am. We're kinda makin' it up as we go."

Mon Mothma shook her head and smiled. They both knew that it was a serious risk, but sometimes the greatest victories were achieved by spur of the moment thinking.

"Good luck to you both then. Contact me immediately if you have any updates."

"Will do, ma'am," Angel promised and then shut off the hologram.

* * *

Jan and Kyle were unloaded from the Imperial freighter and brought to base, where they were stationed was anyone's guess. They were assuming they were beyond the Outer Rim where space was less civilized.

Once they were inside, they were escorted to a room where they were seated back to back in two chairs. Binders locked around their arms and waists kept them from escaping, but did nothing to keep them from talking to each other.

"Any ideas yet?" Jan asked.

"Why are you delegating this responsibility to me?"

"You're a Jedi; don't you have some sort of sense on how to get out of trouble?"

"Yeah, Force Problem Solver," Kyle said while rolling his eyes, "Sorry, I never got that part of training."

"You know you used to be funny," Jan replied in just as sarcastic a tone, "but I guess becoming a Jedi changed all of that."

"_You_ used to be witty. I don't know what changed that."

Jan was tempted to make a comeback but decided their bickering wasn't going to get them anywhere. "So this Abscissor thing, you've never heard of it?"

"No."

"And apparently it's in your memory bank somewhere."

"I guess, but it's not like I can tap in there at will," Kyle replied, "Like the problem solving thing, I haven't found a Force Memory Search either."

"You know, Kyle, you're whole family tree is just crazy," Jan said, "You've got some ancient ancestor who hid a secret Sith weapon and your father found the Valley of the Jedi. What's next? Your grandfather found the Jedi Treasure Chamber?"

"Why are you so upset? The guy doesn't want to dig a hole into your brain."

"I get dragged into it," she hissed back at him. "Tomorrow when it turns out that your mother was some princess who hid some ancient Sith book, I'll be the one flying the getaway ship!"

"That's if we get out of here," Kyle said.

"Oh we'll get out of here. I guarantee it because _I_ want to be the one to kill you."

"Something for me to look forward to then."

The hissing sound of the door-lock being released stole their attention away from themselves and to the new arrivals. Two stormtroopers walked in followed by Castin and then a younger man in flowing black robes. He had black hair and pasty white skin. His sky blue eyes smiled at the prisoners but no in away to comfort them. No, he was overjoyed at the prospect of his plan being well on the way to success.

"Jan Ors and Kyle Katarn," he said, "We meet at last."

"You must be Ganis," Kyle stated.

"Indeed. You defeated my master Jerec."

"Isn't this fun." Kyle remarked to Jan, "Two enemies of our pasts have come back to haunt us."

"Rest assured, Katarn, I do not seek revenge," Ganis told him, "I always believed that my master's quest for the Valley of the Jedi was foolish."

"That's because you don't need it. You're a Shadow Walker."

"Quite right."

"No you're after this Abscissor thing," Kyle said.

Ganis's pleased look left his face and he gazed at Castin Mohc with disapproval. "It appears the commander's tongue is loose."

"It wasn't a secret," Castin retaliated.

"No, but it was my desire to tell them. You do not fully understand the power of this weapon or how to retrieve the knowledge of its location."

"I take it none of this will be fun for me," Kyle said.

Ganis let out a little laugh. "I'm afraid not, Katarn. It is likely to kill you."

"Why am I not surprised?"

Ganis reached into his black robe and pulled out Kyle's lightsaber. He twirled it in his fingers as he said, "This belonged to the Jedi Qu Rahn, a friend of your father's, correct? I wasn't there at his death, but Jerec mentioned it to me, as well as the death of your father."

He pushed the button to activate the green saber into life. "This is the blade that killed my master. You have used it well." He deactivated the saber and looked long and hard at Kyle. "A pity that it will do you no good now."

Ganis dropped the lightsaber onto the floor and then stomped on it with his heavy, black boot. There was a massive crunching sound, and when he removed his boot the saber was revealed to have been trampled into shards of metal and crushed green crystal.

Jan couldn't see Kyle's reaction but she had a feeling his face was blank. She knew on the inside he would be in pain. His father had left that lightsaber for him to use in his quest for the Valley of the Jedi. It was one of the few mementos he had left of his father.

"What did you want with me?" Jan finally spoke up to take Kyle's focus away from his destroyed lightsaber."

"You were only a means to an end," the Sith explained, "When I found your shadow on Illeena, I saw that Katarn exposed himself to save you. I patiently waited until the time was right and then placed the death mark on your head. I knew it would bring him out of hiding again."

"And the attack on my ship," she said, "That was so you could separate us from the others."

"You are a very smart girl," Ganis remarked.

"Would you tell him that?" Jan inquired with a hiss.

The Sith Lord laughed again. "Your relationship is quite entertaining. A part of me wonders how you work so well together, but I can see it in your eyes the bond that flows between you. That is why I knew Katarn would seek you out to protect you from me."

"It was still a risky bet," she replied, "What if I had turned him down?"

"Then I would have found another target," Ganis explained, "Your son."

Jan's heart lurched at the thought and then she winced when she realized what had just happened. Her secret was out.

"She has a son?" Kyle asked in bewilderment. He cocked his head to the side to try and see her through his peripheral vision. "You have a son?" he asked again, still puzzled.

And then it clicked.

"_You_ have a _son_?!" Kyle shouted now. She could feel that his entire body was now tense with fury. He knew. She hadn't said the words yet, but he knew.

Shaking inside from guilt, Jan refused to let them see. Instead she rolled her eyes and said, "Great, now you see what you've done?"

"How interesting," Ganis mused, "You had no idea that you had fathered a child with Jan Ors?"

Jan felt Kyle tense from behind her again. "Who says he's the father?" she replied. She knew it was pointless with Kyle, but perhaps the Sith Lord was only guessing.

Ganis chuckled. "You are an amusing woman. I felt the Force flowing through him when I found his shadow on Coruscant." The Sith Lord was looking at the silently infuriated Kyle when he said, "He is strong, like his father."

He looked back at Jan. "My suspicions were confirmed when I looked into his birth records and saw you had listed Katarn's name."

"Great idea Jan, put your son in danger by being honest," she muttered to herself.

"However, now that I have Katarn, I have no use for your son. My plan worked perfectly,"

"Good for you," Jan said.

Ganis was smiling when he said, "I'm afraid I do not have time to talk any further. I must prepare for the extraction."

Jan could see how pleased he was to leave them with her secret exposed and chafing Kyle raw. Castin was grinning at them when he said. "It won't be long now."

The stormtroopers followed them out, leaving Jan alone with Kyle. When the door closed, she had expected a full out verbal assault; instead she was greeted with silence. She had never been good with silence.

"I'm sorry about your lightsaber," she said to break the quiet. Kyle didn't reply. "Aren't you going to say something?"

Still nothing from her companion.

"Apparently not," she said and then let out a long sigh. She was in big trouble.

* * *

"We think we've found 'em ma'am," Angel spoke to Mon Mothma via hologram again, "The Imps brung 'em to Junira."

"Are you sure?"

"The kid says he can feel Kyle's presence…and another one."

"The Sith Lord leading this operation," she stated.

"That's what we're thinkin' ma'am," Angel said with a nod.

"Do you have a plan?"

"We're gonna land in a safe spot and then try and find a way in," he explained. "It ain't a very big base. My theory is that they work from a ship. These bases here are only small operations."

"I can see what you mean," Mon Mothma said, "However, it means their headquarters will be harder to find if it is a ship."

"I reckon so."

She sighed and shook her head. "Find them quickly and all of you get out safe."

"We'll try our hardest," he promised. To guarantee their safety was foolish. When it came to the Sith, you never knew if you could get out alive.

* * *

It was taking every ounce of the Jedi in him to keep Kyle calm. He couldn't allow Ganis to feel how volatile his emotions were at the moment, but it was obvious that he was angry. He kept quiet so he could work out a plan to get him and Jan out of here…so he could strangle her.

_Be calm, Kyle, be calm_, he told himself, _now is not the time to dish it out to her. Look forward to that later._

Arrogance was a common Sith trait and Ganis was no exception. His now destroyed lightsaber was left on the floor, no doubt to mock him on his helplessness. Some of the metal was sharp and might be able to fit into the lock to his binders if he could wedge it in place. Once he was free, he could easily release Jan so they could both get out of here. Then he could strangle her.

"You know your silence is just plain petty," Jan said to him. Things had been quiet for several minutes, which was pretty much the longest time she had ever been silent.

His silence was the only thing that was keeping him calm while her talking was what was keeping out of focus with his goal.

"When I misread the distance and crashed us down on Padua and we were stuck there for a week, you at least talked to me in very angry sentences."

Padua! She was comparing this to Padua?! _Be calm, be calm, be calm._ Kyle reverted his focus to the crumbled lightsaber and reached into that powerful current inside of him. He selected a long, sharp sliver but before he could pick it up, Jan broke in.

"You're driving me crazy, Kyle, just say something."

A part of his control slipped. "Shut up," he hissed.

Jan hesitated and then shrugged. "At least that's a start."

"Shut up, Jan, so I can focus."

"Focus on what?" she asked.

"On getting us the hell out of here," he said through gritted teeth. She immediately complied with his former request and watched as he used the Force to pick up the metal piece. He dragged it towards him with his mind. He couldn't grab it with his hand so he used the Force to jam it into the lock. It took some work, but he finally forced his binder to unlock.

Kyle leapt out of his chair but saw that his makeshift pick was damaged beyond repair. "What are you waiting for, Katarn? Get me out," Jan said.

"Stay here," he ordered her.

"What?" she asked in disbelief as he turned his back to her. "Don't you dare leave me here Kyle!"

He could have assured her that he would come back, but at that moment letting her squirm seemed like a very good idea. Might teach her a lesson of sorts, or at least give him a small degree of satisfaction.

So he ignored her protests and shut the door behind them. Two stormtroopers were guarding both ends of the corridor with their backs to him. They were about to turn around to see what was going on when Kyle tapped into the Force again and grabbed them both. He clapped his hands together, dragging them both until they slammed against each other.

They might have been dead thought more likely they were unconscious, but Kyle didn't care. He scooped up their blasters and opened their prison door again. Jan was glaring daggers at him when he walked back inside. "You're a bastard, you know that Katarn?"

"I've got a name for you to, but we don't have time to fight each other." He held up his blaster and then instructed, "Hold still."

He pulled the trigger and the shot struck the clasp on her binder. Jan flung it off of her and stood up. "Good to know that your aim hasn't gotten rusty since you became a Jedi."

She was trying to make up; or at least smooth the waters a little. Kyle didn't want glassy water, he wanted torrential storms. He ignored her comment and tossed her the second blaster. "Let's go."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

It had been Cole's idea for how they got inside the base. He had remembered Luke's stories and salvaged the idea of them taking out two stormtroopers guarding the base and donning their armor. His fit fine, Angel was struggling to walk.

"We're going to have to stop so you can get out of that thing," Cole said through the helmet comm, "You look like an idiot."

"I _feel_ like an idiot," Angel replied in his gruff voice, "Your fountain of good ideas needs a little tunin'."

Cole chuckled and then nodded his helmet towards an open door. "That room looks clear, let's change in there."

"Thank you."

They locked the door behind them and stripped out of their white armor. "Jeez, why would anyone be a stormtrooper? It's boiling in there," Cole said as he wiped heavy sweat away from his eyes.

"Takes trainin' I guess," Angel replied. He pried one of the small white boots off of his feet, "You'll have to ask Rogue. He used to be one."

"No wonder he defected from the Empire."

Now free of the cumbersome armor, both men had their weapons ready as the left the supply room. "So how are we going to find them?" Cole asked, "Are we going to hack into the network like Jan does?"

"Only if you can do it."

"I can barely work a computer."

"I figured," Angel replied, "Then I reckon our best bet is interrogatin' one of the Imps."

"By interrogating you mean…" Cole didn't finish because Angel nodded.

"We ain't gonna do much besides scare 'em," Angel assured him, "I don't s'pose you can use your Jedi tricks to do that."

"I'm in enough trouble with Luke as it is."

"Alrighty then, I can do it."

They carefully traipsed down the hallway, keeping a careful eye out for any Imperials. They didn't find any of those right away, but it was apparent that their presence was detected when two attack droids hovered towards them with their blasters firing.

Angel fired back at one with a shot of one of his 'twin's. The bolt struck the droid and sent an electric wave across its mechanical body. The droid let out a whine and then collapsed into a scrap of metal.

Cole was busy deflecting the bolts of the other. He reached into the Force and sent a current of mild electricity to destroy the droid in front of him. "Too easy," he stated.

"You said it, kid."

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Cole asked.

"I don't see any control areas so I'm guessin' we're in the personnel section."

Cole smiled. "Excellent, we'll trap one of the Imps in their own room and then make them tell us where Jan and Kyle are."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

"Do you have any idea where we are going?" Jan asked Kyle as they rushed through the hallways.

"I have a genetic memory not the schematics of the base in my head," he replied.

"Well you act like you have an idea."

"I'm doing what I always do: running on blind luck."

"That didn't always work out for us in the past," Jan reminded him.

Kyle stopped to look her in the eye. "Do you want to take over?"

"Frankly yes. I'll find a computer and download the schematics, maybe we can even send out a transmission to Mon Mothma."

"Why didn't you suggest that before?"

"You've been ignoring me ever since we got free so I figured you wouldn't listen."

Kyle sucked in a breath through his teeth. He wasn't sure if she knew that he had locked away his emotions in a tiny box and the more impudent she acted the more his emotions strained to break free. However, she probably knew. She was probably trying to get his reaction seeing as how she hated it when she couldn't read his mind.

"Let's find you a computer then," Kyle grumbled. It was time to tighten his grip on his emotions and revert back to when they were still partners. They were legends in their field because they worked so well together. Everything else needed to be put aside. For this brief amount of time they were Jan and Kyle again. It actually felt a little good.

That didn't mean he had to be nice to her.

Someone fired a shot at them from behind. They both quickly whirled around and fired back at the two stormtroopers who had found them. It did feel a little strange firing a blaster after having to rely on a lightsaber for over two years, but Kyle's shooting didn't betray this. Together, they managed to take down the Imps with just three shots.

"Let's keep moving," Kyle urged Jan. He clamped on hand around her arm to keep her next to him as they ran. She normally would have protested but she must have decided that there wasn't time.

"There might be a security room up ahead," Jan said and pointed to a familiar insignia carved above one of the doors.

A red dart zipped past Jan's head. Kyle pulled her out of the way as another shot nearly hit her. He shoved her forward, "Go, I'll hold them off."

She fired a few blind shots behind her as she took off to the security room. Kyle followed but walked backwards, facing the four troopers head on. It was risky what he was doing. When he was still an operative, he had infiltrated bases but always with armor and a shield to protect him self. He had neither now.

Kyle kept his aim exact while he used up a few precious seconds firing at the troops. Four quick bursts, each one striking the joint between the helmet and the neck, sent all of the Imps sprawling on the ground. He didn't wait to see if more were coming, instead he ran into the security room.

Jan was already hard at work on the computer typing in codes that Kyle had never been able to understand. "Anything?" he asked. He stayed near the door in case they were attacked.

"I'm just breaking into the cipher now," she told him.

The computer beeped and the screen said that she had been granted access. Almost immediately, a message appeared marked 'urgent'. "What's that?"

"The base has been put on high alert."

"No surprise there," Kyle said.

Jan shook her head. "It concerns a break in from the personnel wing."

"A break in?" he repeated with a confused look. His features relaxed when a conclusion occurred to him. He could see Jan had come up with the same thought and they said at the same time, "Angel and Cole."

"They must have followed us somehow," Jan nodded.

"Does it say where they are?" Kyle asked.

She shook her head again. "It's just a warning."

"Get the schematics and we'll head for the personnel wing. With luck we might find them on our way there."

"That'll take a lot of luck," Jan replied while her fingers went to work on the keyboard.

"We haven't run out so far, so I'd say there's hope."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Castin watched as one of his officers's feet dangled inches above the ground and heard his gasps as he struggled for breath. Ganis had used the Force to choke the officer in retaliation of the bad news he had brought forward.

"You mean to tell me that Katarn has escaped?" Ganis hissed.

"Y-y-yes," the officer choked out, "W-we don't th-think that he-he's left the—base."

Ganis let out a growl and released the officer. The man gasped in great gulps of air and rubbed his bruised throat.

"Mohc," the Sith Lord called out, "Order your men to find them. The woman isn't important but I need Katarn alive."

"We have also received word that two others have infiltrated the base," Castin told him.

"They must be Ors's companions. Kill the giant, but leave the Jedi." The Sith Lord grinned to himself as he said, "I think I should speak to him myself."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Angel and Cole never made it to any of the personnel's quarters because they didn't have to. Instead they had managed to stumble into a maintenance bay with two troopers guarding the door and one man inside fixing a speeder. They took out the two stormtroopers and selected the third man for questioning.

Cole was sitting in the pilot's seat, revving up the engine while Angel had the man's head positioned just in front of the engine. "We're runnin' out of patience," he warned the man, "My friend's gonna pull the turbo trigger soon and then your head's gonna be fried."

For added effect, Cole pushed down on the fuel line harder, making the engine roar.

"You're bluffing," the Imperial said in an uncertain voice, "The Alliance would never sanction this."

"We ain't in Republic territory and I'm very pissed off so you might wanna think it over some."

The man gulped in some air but didn't say anything. "Have it your way," Angel said, "Fire it up, kid!"

Cole made the engine scream again before saying, "Okay, Angel."

"No, no, no! Wait!" the man shouted, "I'll talk."

Cole grinned and shut down the speeder. He turned around in his seat so he could watch Angel talk. "Where are they?"

"I haven't seen them," the Imperial admitted, "but they should be one floor above us in the detention section on the right wing of the base. I don't know which cell."

"That'll do, Imp," Angel replied.

"Hey, I think I might have broken this," Cole said to the man and then threw him a part of the speeder.

The Imperial caught it and then gasped. It was the turbo ignition. Without it, the engine could do little more but make a lot of noise. He had just been intimidated by an empty threat. "You bastards!" he shouted at them, "I knew you were bluffing!"

"You still fell for it," Cole replied with a smug smile, "I say its lights out for you buddy."

The man didn't seem to understand, but it was made clear when Angel slammed his big fist onto the top of his skull. He fell down limp onto the ground.

"Nice work, Angel," Cole said before he leapt over the side of the speeder to join his friend on the ground.

"I saw a lift across the hall we can take to the next floor," Angel said.

"Then let's get to it."

Cole kept his lightsaber in hand but left it dormant. The lift didn't take to long to retrieve them and then it brought them promptly to the floor they desired. Mere seconds after they stepped off of the lift, blaster fire surrounded them.

Cole deflected the shots while Angel fired back, teamwork they had perfected since they had started to work together. There had been five initially, but within minutes the stormtroopers were down to two.

_"I know you are here, Jedi,"_ a voice whispered in Cole's mind.

Two more troopers appeared at the end of the hall so Cole pushed the voice into the back of his mind to fight his friend. But his focus didn't last long.

_"Your father was murdered, Jedi, I can sense it in you. Your father was murdered by a Sith."_

Cole halted his motions as the memory of his father's death flooded his mind involuntarily. He had been only five, but he could still remember hiding in the alcove as his father had instructed. He could still here the cries of the two lightsabers, one blue and one red, clashing against one another. Darth Vader's mechanical rasps still lingered during his dreams, mingled with the sound of his father's shout of pain when the red saber had impaled his body.

_"Does it sill haunt you, Jedi? Do you still dream of your father's suffering?"_

The answer was yes. Many nights he woke up covered in sweat after being torn up inside at the memory of that horrific day. What always followed was a wave of heated anger and this time was no exception.

_"I feel your anger, Jedi. Come and fight me. Fight me to avenge your father."_

Anger was ruling his mind at the moment so it was anger that made him turn away from Angel. _"Can you feel me, Jedi? Come then and fight."_

Cole walked away from his friend, but Angel noticed him. "Kid, where're you goin'?"

"I'll be back, Angel," he said without looking over his shoulder, "Keep looking for Kyle and Jan."

"Nu uh," Angel said and fired one more shot to kill the last trooper, "We ain't gettin' separated."

Cole whirled around with a snarl. "I have to face him, Angel and you don't have the power to help me."

The heat in his voice startled Angel who backed away. "What's goin' on, kid?"

"Find Jan and Kyle," Cole instructed, "I'll deal with Ganis."

Angel's eyes turned round at the mention of the Sith Lord's name. "Ganis? Cole you can't—."

Cole didn't want to listen to the usual excuses. He was too young, too headstrong; too foolish. He was tired of being told what he couldn't do. He wanted to fight; he wanted to be as great a Jedi as his father had been. He couldn't do that if everyone was holding him back.

He took off down the hall and he heard Angel call out, "Cole, no!" but he ignored his friend. For once he was going to do exactly what he wanted and no one could stop him.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

"Something's wrong," Jan heard Kyle say absently as she tapped away at the computer.

"We're stuck on an Imperial base with a lunatic commander wanting revenge on us and a Sith Lord wanting to dissect your brain, of course something's wrong," she replied.

"No, I can feel something," he replied.

_Uh oh_, Jan thought to herself. It sounded like this dealt with the Force and that usually meant trouble. "Like what?" she asked.

Kyle had his eyes closed and he was shaking his head. "I feel anger and confusion but I can't focus on the source. It's like something is clouding my vision."

"Like Ganis?" Jan asked.

"Probably."

"Well we really don't have time to investigate this," she replied, "I'm almost done here."

She had nearly broken through the last decryption when she heard a strange humming sound. Then a blaze of electricity shot through her fingertips. The shock knocked Jan off of her feet and she hit the floor hard. She heard the computer pop and crackle before she smelled the smoke from the fried circuits.

Kyle appeared at her side with a concern look on his face. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she replied. He put one of his hands behind her head to help her sit up. "Thanks," she said.

"What happened?"

"They overloaded the network," Jan explained, "They must have figured out what I was doing, smart bastards."

"That means that they probably know we're here," Kyle said.

"Yep."

"So we should probably leave now."

"Yep."

"Great," Kyle muttered. He grabbed her arm to help her climb back to her feet. Jan felt a little woozy but she didn't say anything. Rest time was not a luxury they could afford at the moment.

She picked up her blaster and followed Kyle out of the room. He swept both sides of the corridor first before running to the opposite wall. Jan followed him with her blaster drawn. She was glad to see that Kyle was cooperating with her, but she could also tell that he had merely put aside his anger. Once this was over she was in for a nice shouting match. Such a match wasn't new but seeing as how this dealt with something a little more serious than misjudging the distance for a landing, she wasn't looking forward to it.

Stormtroopers spotted them up ahead and began to fire. They both took opposite ends of the corridor and shot back. There was a lot of smoke, but Jan counted four troopers. They each managed to take out one before one of the two survivors pulled something out of his belt and threw it towards them.

"Sithspit!" she and Kyle said at the same time. The thermal detonator was still arcing towards them when Kyle grabbed Jan and pushed behind a terminal desk. He fell on top of her just as the blast went off.

Bits of plaster struck them but only their ears suffered from the explosion. Jan opened her eyes and saw that Kyle was still covering her body with his. "You comfortable, Katarn?" she asked

He still wasn't in the mood for a little teasing because he gave her a stony look before rolling to the side. Jan didn't like this tension between them anymore. It was uncomfortable now to have such a barrier separating them, especially when they had to depend on each other right now.

She wanted to say something, but what was there to say? Would an apology really be appropriate at a time like this?

The sound of different set of shots struck Jan's ringing ears and she at up. "I know those guns."

She and Kyle both climbed to their feet and walked around the damage created by the detonator. "Angel?" Jan called out through the blaster fire.

There were two more shots and then some silence. "She-cat? Is that you?"

Jan let out a sigh of relief. The smoke was thick, but she could see Angel's big, dark shape eagerly coming towards them. "Angel, you have never looked more beautiful," she gasped out before he swept her into a giant hug.

"Ah, She-cat, I surely was worried about you."

"Angel—I—have to—breath."

"Oh, sorry." He released her and then looked at Kyle. "Rogue—."

Kyle took a step back with a smile. "I'll take a hand shake instead of broken ribs."

Angel laughed and did as Kyle asked. "I'm glad to see you ain't had much damage done to you."

"You came just in time," he replied, "Ganis had big plans for me. We better get out of here before he has the chance to complete them."

"Where's Cole?" Jan asked when she realized they were missing the fourth member of their party.

"I tried to stop him, honest," Angel pleaded in a worried tone that suggested what he was about to say wasn't going to be good, "but he just took off."

"Took off where?"

"He was gonna go after Ganis, crazy about it."

Jan had to lean against the wall for support. "That stupid, hot-headed kid! Is he insane?"

"Maybe," Angel said, "He kinda went a little nutty. I don't know how else to explain it."

"Which way did he go?" Kyle asked.

Jan locked eyes with Kyle. "You aren't thinking—?"

"Cole doesn't stand a chance against a true Sith Lord. I don't have a choice."

"But your lightsaber—."

"I'm not planning on fighting Ganis," he assured her, "I'm going to grab that kid and then we'll meet you at the exit."

"I came down this hallway from the right," Angel pointed behind him, "Cole went to the left. I don't know where he went from there."

Kyle nodded. "We'll meet you guys as soon as we can."

Jan grabbed his shoulder before he could leave. "Kyle, be careful."

He met her eyes with a cold look. "Don't worry, Jan, you're not getting out of this one that easy."

It wasn't exactly the reassurance she wanted, but if it meant he would come back alive then she would take it.

Jan watched as Kyle left, fearing for both him and Cole. "He sure don't sound happy with you," Angel said.

"He knows," Jan replied.

"About what?"

"Everything."

"Uh oh," Angel said now that he understood, "I reckon you're in for it once all of this is over."

"I know," Jan agreed, "I'm in for it big time."

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

Cole could feel the darkness coiling inside of him. A part of him knew what was happening and that same part was thrilled by it. He felt…free. _He_ was governing himself again instead of Skywalker or Jan or anyone else. He had survived thirteen years on his own with no one ordering him around. He was in control and no one else.

He was following that whisper in his mind down the corridors. No troopers met him. In fact there wasn't a soul around. It was a little odd seeing as how the entire base was on alert, but this was good. It meant no one would be around to distract him when he killed Ganis.

The room he turned into was empty of most objects. It might have been used as a storage area for the Imperials, or a training ground for a Sith Lord. There were glass windows that expanded one wall to display the grey clouded sky outside.

Ganis was waiting for him in the center of the room. Unlike Cole, his lightsaber wasn't activated. He had a smile on his face, one that sent chills up the young Jedi's spine. "Welcome, Jedi."

"Ganis, I'm guessing."

He nodded in reply. "I am unaware of your name."

"Cole Reigan."

Ganis nodded again and his smile broadened. "You are young. Young and impulsive, not a combination one looks for in a Jedi…but perfect for a Sith."

"Is that why you called for me?" Cole asked, "You want me to join you?" He tightened his grip on his lightsaber. "I'll _never_ do that."

Ganis chuckled and shook his head. "I wouldn't be so certain. I can see how conflicted you are." He slowly circled the boy while never taking his eyes off of him. "Everyone is pressuring you, wanting you to control your impulsive behavior. But you don't want to be confined; you want to be let loose. You want to be your own master."

He stopped in front of him again. "I will let you be that."

Cole shook his head. "No you won't. I didn't come here to talk, you urged me to fight you. That's what I'm going to do."

"If that if your wish."

Ganis flicked on his lightsaber. Cole raised his lightsaber and crashed it down against the red one. The clash of the two sabers meeting was a sound that seemed to resonate within Cole's soul, feeding the flaming heat boiling in his blood.

Each harsh connection with the sabers filled him with the need to strike this Dark Lord down. He wanted to watch as his saber lopped the Sith's head off of his shoulders. He wanted to feel the power of knowing he had brought down a Shadow Walker.

The Sith Lord's blows weren't very strong, perhaps he was tired. Or perhaps his true skill lay with his rare power. He was weak. All talk and no real strength in him. He could easily be defeated, even by a Padawan like Cole.

Cole put more power in his swings. If he could wear him out then he could finish the job. It didn't take long.

The complicated dance their sabers were making forced Ganis to drop his lightsaber. It rolled across the ground deactivated. The Sith Lord looked at Cole with a blank expression while the young Jedi smiled. "Apparently you aren't as tough as you like to think you are."

Cole was about to strike when someone shouted, "Cole no!"

He hesitated and saw that Kyle was running towards him. Ganis grinned and used the Force to reach out and recapture his lightsaber. For a minute, Cole was frozen in what to do next. Everything was happening to fast for him to comprehend. But before Ganis could strike, he was knocked over by Kyle's use of the Force.

Though on the ground, Ganis wasn't out yet. He dipped into the Dark Side and shot at the two Jedi with lightening. Cole was writhing in pain and filling with anger. He and Kyle were both slammed against the wall with a perfect view of Ganis breaking open one of the windows and leaping outside.

Now alone, Kyle and Cole took a few moments to recover and catch their breath. "Man, that crap hurts," Cole said with a groan.

Kyle reached over and grabbed Cole's shoulder in a hard grip and hauled him up to his feet. He was sore due to Ganis's punishment so he let out a gasp. "You moron! What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I had him until you showed up," Cole argued and shoved away from him.

"He was toying with you, Cole," Kyle informed him, "He wanted you to think you were winning." He grabbed Cole's shoulder again to make sure he was looking at him. "Ganis is way out of your league. Hell, he's probably way out of _my_ league. You can't fight him on your own."

"I'm stronger than you think," Cole hissed.

"Maybe," Kyle admitted. He was looking at the boy now, peering into his eyes in search for something. "He got to you, didn't he? He made you a take step away from the Light."

"I'm fine," Cole snapped, "He didn't make me do anything. I wanted to prove that I'm as good a Jedi as you, or Luke, or anyone."

"Suicide doesn't prove anything but stupidity. You want to prove that you're a Jedi? Then grow up."

Cole was getting angry again, but it was futile to fight Kyle. He forced himself to calm down.

Kyle let out a sigh and shook his head. "Let's go before Ganis returns and finishes what he started.

_OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_

The bodies of stormtroopers were piling up around the hallway outside of the door where Angel and Jan waited. Kyle had been gone for a while now and she was starting to worry. Kyle was a seasoned Jedi but Ganis was a rare brand of Sith. Could someone who could control darkness be defeated, especially by a Jedi who was without a lightsaber?

Thankfully, she couldn't think about it much because stormtroopers kept arriving to stop them from leaving. She had to focus on staying alive herself instead of wondering about her two missing companions.

Blaster fire came from one end of the hall followed by a "Go!" Jan felt a wave of relief when she recognized Kyle's voice. Angel opened the door and shoved her outside.

Junira was a barren world made up of brown dust and dead trees. What had destroyed the once lush forest and grass was a mystery to Jan. "Where's the ship?!" she shouted to Angel who was behind her.

"We hid it behind the dead forest. Should be alright."

She could still hear blaster fire which told her that they were being followed. Jan wanted to stop and fire back, but there wasn't time. They needed to get to the _Raven's Claw_ and leave this wasteland for good. Hopefully they could lose them in the trees.

The brittle limbs of the dry trees scratched at Jan's face and clothes. Some strands of her hair were pulled free from her scalp, but that didn't stop her. She couldn't hear Cole's lightsaber so it appeared he had the brains to not make a trail for him—and ultimately the troopers—to walk through.

The sky rumbled above her, promising rain. Rain would slow them down, not to mention making it harder to take off. Jan kicked in more energy for her run. She was determined to get off of this dump before the rain poured down.

Through the brown trees, she could see the steel color of her beloved ship. Red bolts were flashing behind her so the run through the forest had failed to elude their pursuers.

Angel hit the remote to activate the loading ramp so Jan didn't have to wait to release it manually. She raced aboard her ship and didn't slow down until she reached the cockpit. She was already firing up the controls when Kyle yelled, "Everyone's onboard. Go!"

She put the thrusters into maximum power and then pulled back the controls to force the _Claw_ into the air. It was a dangerous speed, but Jan was confident in her skill. The troopers were firing at her with their blasters, but the deflector shield kept them at bay.

She piloted away from the base in case they had an ion cannon primed. The race to space was bumpy with the clouds making it difficult to see. Jan relied on her instincts to get them out of Junira's atmosphere. When they reached space she let out a gasp. "They have a Star Destroyer?!"

The _Claw_ rocked from a direct hit. Jan saw that their shields were dropped to sixty-four percent. Another hit sent them down to forty-seven.

"Jan, lightspeed now!"

"You don't have to tell me that!" she shouted back to Kyle.

She was setting the trajectory when another blast dropped the shields down to twenty-two percent. One more hit and they were sure to be dead.

Jan pulled back the lever and the stars turned into white streaks of light. The _Raven's Claw_ shot forward into a deep path through space.

* * *

Jan ran a quick diagnostic on the ship to see how much damage had been caused by the blasts. The shields had managed to keep the blasts at bay for the most part. Some of the outer hull had been scorched and would need to be patched up, but they should hold out until they could land.

Tired from the excitement, Jan switched over into the autopilot and left the cockpit. In the galley, Angel and Cole were sitting at the table while Kyle was leaning against the wall. "I've set a course for Coruscant. We should be there in a few hours."

She narrowed her eyes at her young Jedi friend. "I also sent a transmission to Luke explaining your detour."

"Great," Cole muttered.

"You're lucky that—Kyle!" she shouted out Kyle's name because at that moment he swooped in, picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. "What the hell are you doing?!"

He didn't reply, just started marching towards her quarters. She pounded her fists into his back but that didn't stop him.

"Angel, do something," she begged.

"I am," he replied with a chuckle, "I'm laughin'."

She let out a cry of frustration. "Traitor," she hissed.

When Kyle reached her quarters, he walked inside and threw her down onto the bed. Jan sat up and watched as he walked back to the door and sealed them inside. He stood in front of the door like a watch dog guarding the exit to a prison.

"Okay," she said calmly, "I can see that you're mad."

"Mad?" Kyle repeated in a tone that clearly said 'guess again'.

"Okay, angry."

"Angry?"

Jan threw her hands up into the air. "Furious then."

"You're getting warmer."

"Well I'm running out of adjectives here," she snapped.

Kyle shook his head with a cold chuckle. "Oh, Jan, I am _light-years_ past furious." He glared at her now. "How could you not tell me that I have a son?!"

"_I_ have a son," she corrected him before standing up from her bed.

"He's my son too."

"Since when?" she asked.

"I'm not going to play this game with you, Jan," Kyle said through gritted teeth, "You should have told me."

"What was I supposed to do? Post a notice saying 'Kyle Katarn, come home you knocked up your ex-partner'?"

"This isn't funny, Jan!"

"I agree wholeheartedly," she replied, "I'm just asking you what you would have preferred? Should I have run across the galaxy looking for you again, this time with a baby on my hip?"

"You could have told me once we met again on Aron," he stated.

"Yeah, because you stuck around so long the last time we met," Jan replied.

"_That's_ your excuse?" he questioned.

"You didn't stay with me last time, how was I supposed to know this was going to be different?"

"It _is_ different," Kyle insisted, still scowling at her, "I never would have left our son."

"_My_ son."

"_Our_ son."

"_My_ son."

"_Our_ son."

"_My_ son."

"Jan!" Kyle shouted out her name in frustration.

She let out a sigh and sat back down on her bed. "I don't care if you leave me Kyle…I mean I do care, but it doesn't matter as much as the idea that you would abandon him."

"I just said—."

"How can I believe that?" she cut him off to ask, "I said I loved you and then I wake up the next morning and you're gone. No note, no trans-number, nothing to tell me where you were or why you left. You honestly think that doesn't give me an excuse to assume you'd leave me again?"

Kyle didn't reply. He was out of ways to defend himself, especially when it came to what she had just said. He had left twice; it really wasn't crazy to think he might leave again. He had a right to know, but she had a right to protect their son anyway she…could.

He now looked at her with suspicion when he asked, "This guy you said you were seeing. It's our son, isn't it?"

Jan winced in reply.

"Damn it, Jan! You lied to me!"

"No I didn't," she replied, "I just left out part of the truth."

"A big part," he hissed, "You implied that you were in love with someone else."

"Technically I am."

It was a thin argument and she knew it. "How could you do that to me, Jan?" Kyle asked, "You let me think that you…" He didn't finish because he knew it would just infuriate him even more.

She felt guilty again for what she had done. He had every right to be angry about what she had said to him, but she didn't apologize. Instead she just stayed silent.

"What's his name?" Kyle asked after several moments of silence.

"Morgan," Jan replied.

He raised one of his brows as he gave her a quizzical look. "You named him after my father?"

"He saved his life."

"Okay, you've lost me, Jan."

She sucked in a breath before saying, "After I found out I was pregnant, I didn't know what to do. I was considering _all_ options."

"You mean you thought about—?"

"Don't judge me, Kyle," she cut in, "I was alone and scared and I wasn't sure I could do it."

"I'm not judging you," he replied and she could tell he wasn't lying.

Jan nodded. "Your father appeared in my apartment, scared the crap out of me in fact. He told me that I would regret it if I went through with it." She let out a long sigh. "He was right. It would have been the worst mistake of my life."

Kyle nodded in understanding. "Do you have a picture of him?"

Jan got up from her bed and went to her bureau. She opened a drawer and pulled out her picture of Morgan and then walked over and gave it to Kyle.

He stared at it for a long time with a thoughtful look on his face. Jan could see that he was already falling in love with their son though he hadn't even met him yet. "He looks like me when I was a baby."

"I know."

Kyle gave her a puzzled look. "How would you know?"

"Well he doesn't look like me when I was his age."

He chuckled a little but didn't look up from the picture. "Morgan Ors," he said.

"Morgan Ors Katarn," she corrected.

Kyle lowered the picture with another confused look. "You gave him my last name?"

"You are his father."

"You haven't seemed very thrilled by that fact."

"I never said that I didn't want you to be his father, I'm just expressing doubt that you'll actually do it," she explained, "I'm waiting for you to race out that door and disappear again."

"I guess I can't blame you for that," Kyle admitted. Suddenly, his eyes went hard and cold again. "But that doesn't explain why you would lie to me and say you were in love with someone else."

_He just had to bring that up again,_ Jan though with inward groan. "We don't have time to argue this out. We just escaped from a Sith Lord who wants to poke through your brain."

She had managed to cheat her way out of the original subject by bringing up a hard truth, and she could see that he knew it.

"You owe that Sith Lord a thank you," Kyle said.

"What?" Jan asked in bewilderment.

"He told me about Morgan and that's the best thing that could have happened because now we know he has a Plan B."

"What does Morgan have to do with this?"

"Think about it, Jan," Kyle said, "He's my son. We share the same blood…and the same genetic memory."

Jan's face whitened and she gasped into a breath. "Force no," she whispered, "And he knows where I live."

She pushed Kyle aside and unlocked the door. "I have to contact Mon Mothma and..." She stopped because when she opened the door, Angel and Cole fell to the ground at her feet.

"Hi Jan," Cole said with a sheepish grin.

Jan pursed her lips and reached down to twist Cole's ear. The Jedi let out gasps of pain as she hauled him up to his feet by his ear. Meanwhile, Angel stood up laughing. "What were you two doing?"

"Eavesdroppin'," Angel stated, "It was his idea."

"And you didn't stop him because…?"

"'Cause I wanted to listen in too."

Jan gave him a hard punch on the shoulder that probably did no damage. She pushed past them to head for the cockpit. She called over her shoulder, "You coming, Katarn?"

"Family matter," he told his companions before he followed her to he cockpit.

* * *

"This is a very serious matter," Mon Mothma spoke regarding the latest developments that Kyle and Jan had just informed her of.

"That's understating it a bit," Kyle remarked lightly to the hologram of the woman in front of him.

Luke's shimmering hologram form remained still, obviously the Jedi Master was in deep thought, "I have never heard of this Abscissor weapon."

"Neither have I," Kyle explained, "but Ganis wants it bad."

"And the location to this weapon is within your ancestral memory," Mon Mothma said her eyes narrowing a little at the thought, "it doesn't seem plausible."

Kyle shook his head, "Yeah but its just crazy enough to be true."

"And if it is true," Jan interrupted, "then they don't need Kyle, not if they can get to Morgan."

"We won't let that happen," Luke told her, his voice was serious but confident.

"He knows where I live!" She exclaimed, "his shadow was in my home and he saw my son!"

"Calm down Jan," Mon Mothma urged her.

"Calm down?! My son is in danger and I don't…" Kyle put a hand on her shoulder, a gesture of comfort but she also understood his silent message to be quiet for a few moments.

"We need to move Morgan," Kyle spoke up, "he isn't safe on Coruscant."

"Coruscant is the capital of the New Republic," Mon Mothma reminded Kyle, "I doubt Ganis has the man power to launch an attack."

"He doesn't need to, all he has to do is control a few shadows and he could take the boy out from under you," He explained, "you don't have the power to stop him."

"It would be easier to sense his presence if Morgan were in place strong in the Force," Luke agreed, "We could bring him to Yavin, there are enough to Jedi strong enough to sense Ganis's presence and Morgan would be safer with Jedi around."

"I'm going with him," Jan said firmly.

Luke nodded, "I would never ask you to leave your son alone," he said sincerely.

"We are _both_ going," Kyle corrected eyeing Jan with an angry glint in his eye, "It's about time that I met Morgan don't you think?"

* * *

"I never should have let you be in charge!" Castin shouted to the Sith Lord. "_I_ captured them and _you_ let them get away!"

Ganis was ignoring the incensed Imperial Commander as he prepared for his meditation. "I never should have allied myself with you. Katarn would be dead now and my father would be avenged if I had done this on my own!"

"You would be the one dead, Mohc," Ganis replied coolly, "You may have the wealth to gather an army, but you do not have the intelligence to outwit Katarn."

"I managed to capture him, didn't I?"

"With my help," Ganis said, "Calm yourself, we will get Katarn back."

"But he'll be on his guard now," Castin stated.

Ganis nodded, "True, but there is another Katarn who can't protect himself. It will be much easier to get the information I need this way."

"You mean the boy, don't you?" Castin said.

"Precisely. The child is strong in the Force. He would make an excellent apprentice and I am in need of one."

"They'll see it coming," Castin pointed out bitterly, "They'll hide the child somewhere where you can't penetrate with your shadow magic."

"I won't need it," Ganis said.

"What do you mean?"

"Once I find out where they are going we will strike. I will send out a beacon in the Force, calling all surviving Sith to come to me. Then we will capture the son of Katarn and learn the location of the Abscissor."

Castin smiled. "And Katarn and his woman will come to us to rescue their son."

Ganis nodded, also smiling, "Then we will have him again and this time we _will_ kill him."

* * *

A/N: So Kyle is on his way to meet his son and so are the bad guys as well. Will Kyle and Jan be able to protect their son? Find out soon. Reviews are always appreciated.


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